A couple of Saint Louis oddities

[Alison Murie]

>The pronunciation of 'sundae' with a final schwa is one of the features
>identified as local to STL by Tom Murray in his work on the dialect. I
>don't recall any mention of 'tassel' in those works.
>
>The local pronunciation of 'sundae' appears to be dying out at least among
>the wider speech community. Still, I don't believe it's as stigmatized as
>the other STL stereotype: "farty" for '40' (which is the stand-in for the
>for/far merger Beverly mentioned).
>
>-Matt Gordon
~~~~~~~~~~~
I used to hear the pronunciation "sund@" occasionally in Lincoln NE in the
thirties.  I don't know if the speakers were from STL.  My mother who *was*
(born 1905) did not say "sund@".  Neither did she pronounce Missouri  as
"missour@"  (are those related to each other?).  And St. Louis was "lewis".
Where, BTW, does the word "sundae" come from?  I have a faint recollection
of its discussion here some years ago.
AM

~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>

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