herikan [sp?]
David Bowie
db.list at PMPKN.NET
Mon Jun 7 23:12:40 UTC 2010
From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> The phrase, "like a hurricane" [hErI.k&n], occurs in a song by Chuck
> Berry. Unfortunately, Neil Young has written - or should that be,
> "wrote"? - a song with the title, Like A Hurricane, which comes up
> whether I try "hurricane," "herrican," "herikan," etc. No doubt the
> title of the Berry song will eventually return to me. IAC, "h[E]rikan"
> is a common BE pronunciation of _hurricane_, just as [hErI] for
> "hurry" is so common that it was once likewise common in the speech of
> your humble correspondent.
> (Jon, you go, boy!)
It's not just a BE pronunciation—consider the small Utah town of
Hurricane, pronounced [hE.rI.k at n] or [hr.I.k*n], depending on who's
saying it, by all the white people from there.
Very truly yours,
David Bowie
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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