Westconsin

[Wilson Gray]

The two groups don't quite overlap. I wouldn't be at all surprised to
hear Obama or Colin Powell say "Wes-consin," but I'd really be
startled to hear either say "melk."

-Wilson

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 6:58 PM, Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at ILLINOIS.EDU>
> Subject:      Fwd: Westconsin
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> From: Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu>
>> Date: April 20, 2010 3:08:04 PM CDT
>> To: ronbutters at aol.com
>> Subject: Re: Westconsin
>>
>> A phenomenon of vowel lowering, centralizing from =C9=AA to =C9=9B =
> (don't =20
>> know if these characters will show in your email) results in =20
>> pronunciations for these two words in particular:  "wes-consin" for =20=
>
>> Wisconsin, "melk" for milk. I don't know how common this is, or the =20=
>
>> geographical spread, but it's common enough to attract attention =20
>> from non-lowerers of the vowel.
>>
>> Dennis Baron
>> Professor of English and Linguistics
>> Department of English
>> University of Illinois
>> 608 S. Wright St.
>> Urbana, IL 61801
>>
>> office: 217-244-0568
>> fax: 217-333-4321
>>
>> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>>
>> read the Web of Language:
>> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 20, 2010, at 2:30 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =20
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
>>> Subject:      Re: Westconsin
>>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>>
>>> Were the sports teams also known as "Badgers"? That should have =20
>>> given you a clue. How many schools would have chosen a rodent for a =20=
>
>>> mascot? (Of course, there are the Minnesota "Gophers"--opposed, =20
>>> perhaps, to the Mini Sewti "Go-fors").
>>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Date:         Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:05:21
>>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Westconsin
>>>
>>> For an embarrassingly long time, I was under the impression that my
>>> father had attended the University of_West Conson_, even after I had
>>> come to know that there was a state named "Wisconsin." Sometimes, I'm
>>> slow to make connections and corrections.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Laurence Horn =
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu=20
>>> > wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =20
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>> Subject:      Re: Westconsin
>>>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>>>
>>>> At 1:14 PM -0400 4/20/10, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>>>> One of my adult literacy learners today spelled that The Badger =20
>>>>> State
>>>>> as "Westconsin."  I thought it was a possible eggcorn, and in her =20=
>
>>>>> case
>>>>> I think it was, but I got 175k raw ghits on it, most of which =20
>>>>> referred
>>>>> to businesses in western Wisconsin where it seems to be a conscious
>>>>> blend to name the region.
>>>>>
>>>>> Herb
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>> Also some hits (all self-conscious coinages, I suspect) for =20
>>>> "Eastconsin".
>>>>
>>>> Of course people in and around the states typically destress the
>>>> first syllable drastically and even resyllabify (w@ SKAN s at n), which
>>>> would make any such reanalysis (to "Westconsin") all the more
>>>> unlikely in situ.
>>>>
>>>> LH
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> =C2=96=C2=96=C2=96
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=C2=96=C2=96a strange =20=
>
>>> complaint to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> =C2=96Mark Twain
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-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

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