pronunciation of "Syracuse"

[Jerome Foster]

It's because they drink a lot of milk in upste NY.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alice Faber" <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: pronunciation of "Syracuse"


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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject:      Re: pronunciation of "Syracuse"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 12/30/10 6:09 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>> On the TV broadcast of the oddly-named New Era Pinstripe Bowl football
>> game (Syracuse vs. Kansas State) the announcer has been consistently
>> pronouncing "Syracuse" as [sEr at kjuz].
>>
>> Of course, a historical (and orthographic) /E/ preceding /r/ has
>> frequently come to be manifested as [I]--for instance, in "here" or
>> "era"--but is the opposite process common?
>>
>
> That's a fairly common regional pronunciation. I'm not sure what the
> limits are, but I suspect it's around Syracuse itself, as a lot of the
> folks I hear it from are sports analysts and announcers whose degrees
> are from there.
>
> --
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> Alice Faber                                       faber at haskins.yale.edu
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