square from Delaware (1939)

[Wilson Gray]

In the Army, I knew a Baltimorean who said [bOl at mr], but that was
fifty years ago and only a single "informant." Reminds of the Dutch
town, Almelo. Its spelling indicates that it was once pronounced
[alm at lo], but railroad conductors pronounced it [al at mlo]. As usual,
that was fifty years ago.

-Wilson

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 3:04 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: square from Delaware (1939)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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