de Tocqueville; was Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

Besides, it's not possible, except in theory, to go from coast to
coast or from border to border and be fully and easily understood.
When I moved from Saint Louis to Los Angeles, I found that I was
continually and annoyingly being asked what it was that I had just
said, though I had no problem understanding what people said to me.

When I started working at Harvard, I fielded a telephone call for
someone named "Tanney." I replied that there was no such person at
that number. I was later much chagrined to discover that the name,
"Tierney," as pronounced in Bostonian, is nearly indistinguishable
from the string, "Tanney," as that is spoken in Boston, roughly,
[ti at ni] vs. [ti&ni] and that there were no fewer than three Brothers
Tierney working in my area. Theretofore, I'd considered the
pronunciation of "Tierney" to be [tirni].

-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 Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 2:57 PM, David Metevia <djmetevia at chartermi.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Metevia <djmetevia at CHARTERMI.NET>
> Subject:      Re: de Tocqueville; was Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I agree he didn't make it coast to coast but did make it at least as far
> west as Michigan.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>  Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 12:45
>  Subject: de Tocqueville; was Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      de Tocqueville; was Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> For the record, when de Tocqueville visited the US, there was no
> "coast to coast" for the country. I don't think he left the eastern
> seaboard.
>
> Barbara Need
>
> On 21 Feb 2009, at 10:00 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
>> Alexis De Tocqueville toured the USA and marveled at the fact that
>> one could go coast to coast speaking one language and be
>> understood.  Let's extend that worldwide.
>
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