What do pros do ...?

[David Bergdahl]

FWIW, my 5-yr old grandaughter Sofia Lore Jennings is pronounced /so 'fi: @/
-db

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Hillary Brown <hillaryhazelbrown at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Hillary Brown <hillaryhazelbrown at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: What do pros do ...?
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> I don't know if Sophia with an "i" is being primarily given to Hispanic
> babies. I know two small Sophias, and both are the product of
> middle-to-upper-class white families with liberal politics.
>
> hb
>
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 4:47 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
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> > Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: What do pros do ...?
> >
> >
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> >
> > When I have taught the novel _The Color Purple_, my students evince
> > disturbance at my pronunciation of the name of the character Sophia as
> [so
> > fai @]; they insist on [so fi @] (perhaps thus in the Spielberg movie,
> which
> > I haven't seen?). Last year, Sophia was one of the 3 or 4 most popular
> names
> > being given to girl babies in the U.S., many of them (I assume)
> > Hispanic--hence [so fi a].
> >
> > Has Americans' pervasive awareness of Spanish (even if only from
> _Westside
> > Story_) or Italian influenced the shift of Maria from [m@ rai @] to [m at ri
> > @]? Do the Brits still say [m@ rai @]?
> >
> > --Charlie
> > _____________________________________________________________
> >
> > ---- Original message ----
> > >Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:18:13 -0700
> > >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> > >
> > >Did he call the wind "Muh rye uh"?
> > >
> > >  JL
> > >
> > >Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > >
> > >When they find different pronunciations in, for all practical
> > >purposed, exactly the same dialectological environment? For example:
> > >
> > >I have a cousin named "Marie," who is the niece of my grandparents. My
> > >grandfather, a native of Marshall, Texas, pronounced this name as
> > >you'd expect: "muh REE" [m@ 'ri]. However, my grandmother, a native of
> > >Longview, Texas, who moved to Marshall about five years after marrying
> > >my grandfather, always referred to Marie as "muh RYE" [m@ 'raI]. If
> > >you stand on your tiptoes, you can see Longview from Marshall. (The
> > >term, "mother tongue" having a basis in reality, my brother and I knew
> > >Marie as "cudn muh RYE," ignoring our grandfather's pronunciation.)
> > >
> > >Another example is the pronunciation of the late, great bluesman,
> > >Floyd Dixon, whose only recorded compilation is entitled, "Marshall,
> > >Texas, Is My Home." In his most famous work, "Dallas Blues, he
> > >pronounces Dallas only as [dae at l@s], close to the sE pronunciation.
> > >Yet, the Marshall - and probably general Deep-Southern - pronunciation
> > >of Dallas is [daeLIs], with the second syllable sounding the same as
> > >the first syllable of "listen" ['LIs n] as though the name of the city
> > >were spelled "Dall_i_s."
> > >
> > >-Wilson
> > >--
> > >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> > >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > >-----
> > >-Sam'l Clemens
> > >
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