Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?

[Wilson Gray]

I've heard only [lEgo] (<sigh!> Yes, I do remember "Leggo my Eggo"). I
had no idea that [lego] was a possible pronunciation. Before I heard
the [lEgo] pronunciation, I said [ligo] in my mind and I'd since
assumed that [lEgo] was a foreign pronunciation of some sort, since it
doesn't match the spelling. I've never had occasion to discuss Lego in
real life and I'm not even really sure what it is. A game of some
sort, I suppose.

-Wilson

On 7/25/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've never heard anything but "Legos."  But more interesting to me is the
> shift in pronunciation (understandable in AmEng) from [lego] to [lEgo], as
> in "Leggo my Eggos" (remember that one?).
>
> At 02:56 PM 7/25/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       James Callan <james.callan at COMCAST.NET>
> >Subject:      Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> >On his blog, Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings recently discussed what one
> >reader considered an error in his book Brainiac: Lego vs. Legos. Jennings
> >says "Legos," which LEGO (the company) and many Lego fans don' t care for.
> >As Jennings says:
> >
> >Some households say "Let's play with Lego." Others (a majority in America,
> >I'm guessing) say, "Let's play with Legos."
> >(http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=496)
> >
>
> >I say "play with Legos" -- born in '70, raised in Wisconsin's Fox Valley
> >and Milwaukee suburbs.
> >
> >How does the Lego vs. Legos issue break down elsewhere? National
> >boundaries? Regions?
> >
> >  -- James Callan
> >
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