last laugh on awe-dropping

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/8/2009 10:48 AM, RonButters at aol.com wrote:
>In most (all?) varieties of American English, [a] reduces to schwa
>when unstressed. The pronunciation of "LaGuardia" with two schwas is
>totally normal in ordinary speech cadence. It is totally unremarkable.

Not in my normal speech, and I would remark on it (or silently wonder
if the speaker was from out of town).

Joel


>In a message dated 2/8/09 9:25:30 AM, Berson at ATT.NET writes:
>
>
>>At 2/8/2009 10:04 AM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>> >I checked the written transcript of Flight 1549 talking with New
>> >York TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control).  There were only a
>> >few words with "awe".  One, repeated several times, was "LaGuardia",
>> >which is most often pronounced /l@ 'gwawr dee @/.  This is odd,
>> >since it is an Italian name which Fiorella pronounced I don't know
>> >how but his ancestors pronounced /lah gwahr dee ah/.
>>
>>l@ by analogy with "the"?
>>
>>BTW, it's "Fiorello", not "la".  And while I listened to his reading
>>of the comics, I can't attest to his pronunciation, only mine --
>>which is /lah gwahr dee ah/.  Are recordings of his readings
>>extant?  Possibly he introducing himself.
>>
>>Also BTW, checking on the year of his readings, I notice that the
>>Wikipedia article separates La Guardia.
>>
>>Joel
>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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