I say...Lusitani-ay

[Jonathan Lighter]

Big breakthrough - or red herring ?

  1948 Vance Randolph _Ozark Folksongs_ (Columbia. Mo.: Missouri State Historical Society) 283:

  Professor A. W. Breeden, Manhattan, Kan., Apr. 12, 1935, sings...this piece, which he learned in Stone County, Mo., in the early 90's.

  Oh the Ioway First are the boys they fear the worst,
  And on the Johnny Rebs we are gainin'.

  Moreover,

  1904 Owen Wister, in Jim Bob Tinsley _He Was Singin' This Song_ (Orlando, Fla.: U. Presses of Florida, 1981) 88: A son-of-a-gun from Ioway.

  The element of doubt here is that the state of Iowa was named for the Ioway [sic] Indians, and this particular pronuciation may reflect that.

  JL


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