pron of Worcester, MA

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:36 AM -0500 2/27/09, Alison Murie wrote:
>Pronouncing /c/ as "ch"  doesn't necessarily imply the mistaken
>insertion of an /h/, since we have a number of words borrowed from
>Italian that exhibit this feature, as does church Latin (influenced, I
>suppose, by Italian).  BTW, I've known a number of people who give
>"Worcestershire" a full-blown five-syllable pronunciation:
>"Worchestershyer Sauce."
>AM

Another factor in Mass. may be the influence of "Dorchester" (often
pronounced something like DAH-chistuh, but in any case with a "ch"
affricate).

LH

>~~~~~~~~~~~
>On Feb 26, 2009, at 11:43 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>>Subject:      Re: pron of Worcester, MA
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>As a slight digression, the thing I always found most interesting
>>about Worcester when I lived in Boston was not its pronunciation --
>>which I was used to from Worcestershire sauce -- but the fact that it
>>was common for people to explain, "It's spelled Worchester but
>>pronounced Wista." Not "Wor-cest-er" but "Wor-chest-er." Quite a lot
>>of people seemed to have the definite idea that there was an h after
>>the c. Similar, I imagine, to the common idea in Toronto that there's
>>a g after then n in Eglinton.
>>
>>James Harbeck.
>>
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