pronunciation of "Syracuse"

[Lynne Murphy]

If you don't say it that way, we know you're not from round these* parts.

(which I can only say because I'm 'home'--45 miles west of 'Saracuse'--for
the holidays--drove through it twice this week, subjected to the sports)

Can't comment on the commonness of the process--can't think of another word
in which it occurs. It was only when I was old enough to interact with
non-upstaters that it occurred to me that the 'y' in Syracuse could
actually be taken as an invitation to use an 'i' vowel. (Yes, in spite of
my own name.)

Lynne


--On Thursday, December 30, 2010 23:09 +0000 Charles C Doyle
<cdoyle at UGA.EDU> 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?
>
> --Charlie



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Director of English Language and Linguistics
School of English
Arts B348
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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