"potato" vs. "potahto"?

Salikoko S. Mufwene s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU
Fri May 19 17:11:47 UTC 2006


The following sentence occurs in an article published today in the
Chicago Tribune about the US Senate's vote to declare English the
"national language":

"We think it's basically the same thing. It's a `You say potato, I say
potahto' kind of thing," said Tim Schultz, director of government
relations of U.S. English Inc.

I have always heard the variation about "tomato." Is there really a
[p@'ta:to] pronunciation of "potato" too?

Sali.

--
**********************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene                    s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago                  773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene
**********************************************************

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list