[Speech note] Pronouncing Oregon

[Benjamin Barrett]

At least for me, I think the pronunciation varies between "gIn" and
"g at n", with the former preferred.

FWIW, I'm a West Coaster and find the pronunciation "gahn" grates on my
ears. There aren't many words that bother me, but Oregon really does.
Not sure why. Ne-VAH-d@ is a close second.

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> According to SAMPA, @ stands for "uh", as the "a" in "about". So the "gon" in "oregon" as "g at n" is "gun".
>
> from m-w.com
> Main Entry: Or·e·gon
> Pronunciation: \ˈȯr-i-gən, ˈär-, chiefly by outsiders -ˌgän
>
> Looks like special symbols didn't copy/paste.  Click on the speaker icon and hear  it more  like ~gin than ~gun.
>
>
>
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>>
>> A woman has just told Judge Greg that she's from [o.rI.g at n]. That's
>> the West-Coast pronunciation that I'm accustomed to hearing.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> On 11/4/07, Scot LaFaive  wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Scot LaFaive
>>> Subject: [Speech note] Pronouncing Oregon
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> I just heard a local (Madison, WI) newsanchor "correct" herself right after
>>> she pronounced "Oregon" as [or.e.gin] (rhyming with "pin"). Right after
>>> pronouncing it as such, she immediately said [or.e.gan] (rhyming with
>>> "Ron").
>>> (I don't have the correct phonetic symbols, but I think you get the point).
>>>
>>> Scot
>>>

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