pronunciations--previously [no subject]

[Jonathan Lighter]

Naah, just switch to "garridge" and see what happens.

  BTW, OED lacks U.S. / n ae: (::) /.  My grandfather said "naah" far more often than "no." (He may never have said "no"; hard to picture.)

  True also of Bugs Bunny and Archie Bunker.

  JL

Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Michael H Covarrubias
Subject: pronunciations--previously [no subject]
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Quoting Laurence Urdang :
>
> Give people literacy and the first
> thing they do is turn to spelling
> pronunciation.
> Recently, I have heard albeit,
> alternative, and stalwart all pronounced
> with a first syllable rhyming with pal.

Is the [ae] vowel really a spelling pronunciation of 'al-'? Perhaps in some
dialects of northern Michigan and parts of Canada... The same dialects spoken by
my friends who think I'm being pretentious when I pronounce 'pasta' with an [a].

> And whence comes homage, a word
> borrowed and assimilated as HOM-ij or
> OM-ij, from 12th- or 13th-century French,
> made to rhyme with fromage? What
> pretentious crap!

I suppose AmE 'garage' could sound just as pretentious to some. We're surrounded
by Gallicisms. Shall we bid them all adi...goodbye?

Michael

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