square from Delaware (1939)

[Mark Mandel]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 11:16 PM, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:

> I don't think I had ever heard the "Spo kann"  pronunciation of Spokane
> before actually moving to the state of Washington in 1947.  I'd guess that
> the mispronunciation was far more widespread than the, um, "correct" one, at
> mid-century.

I suspect you're right, and that the /ae/ pronunciation (rhymes with
"man") was a localism, like /'bOl.m at r/ for Baltimore. I also started
by pronouncing it as I read it, /spo:'ke:n/. (Grew up in/around NYC,
fifties and sixties.)

--
Mark Mandel

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