"cumberbund"

[Wilson Gray]

As one who's spent about sixty years trying to speak "proper English,"
I can tell you that it's possible to be fully cognizant of the
spelling of a word and yet be fully persuaded that one's own
idiosyncratic pronunciation is the norm and that any *other*
pronunciation is wrong or other pronunciations are simply not noticed
or are explained away as simply a variant or are even regarded as
being another word entirely that, by sheer coincidence, happens to
*sound* like the relevant word.

I've been through all of these changes, at one time or another. Like,
when I used the pronunciation, [mOrdn], I knew full well that the word
was spelled "modern." I also even noticed that a lot of other people
"mispronounced" it. But, since I "knew" that *my* pronunciation was
the "correct" one, I was unconcerned.

And people wonder how phonological change comes about!

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:27 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "cumberbund"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 20, 2008, at 2:27 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
>> Subject:      Re: "cumberbund"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> But in western NYS, I knew it as 'cumberbund'.  I would've thought the
>> 'mispronunciation' is at least as widespread (if not more) than the
>> 'real'
>> pronunciation.
>
> "mispronunciation" was not my label, of course.
>
> in any case, i asked two friends (both ca. 50, both white) about the
> word at lunch yesterday -- by describing the object and asking what
> they called it.
>
> one (a woman who grew up in maine) offered "cummerbund", the other (a
> man who grew up in bethlehem, pa.) offered "cumberbund".  each was
> surprised at the other's variant.
>
> like several others who posted here, i heard only one "b" in the word
> in the rap song.  it then occurred to me that there are undoubtedly
> people who think that the word is *spelled* "cumberbund", but is
> normally pronounced, 'casually', with only one "b".
>
> arnold
>
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