Heard on [adult swim]: "Japan" > [dZei p&n]

[Gerald Cohen]

There's also a Japan in Missouri, pronounced "Jay-pan."
Robert Ramsay in his book _Storehouse of Missouri Placenames_ has an
interesting story about it.  The name attracted  unfavorable attention
during World War II, but then it came out that the town was not named
in honor of Japan but rather in honor of Christian martyrs who perished
there.

The objections then vanished.

That's from memory. My copy of Ramsay is at my office.

Gerald Cohen


On 9/8/10 5:48 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on [adult swim]: "Japan" > [dZei p&n]
>
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>
> 1945 Ernie Pyle _Last Chapter_ (N.Y.: Henry Holt, 1946) 23: I noticed a lot
> of people [in the Marianas] unconsciously pronouncing Japan as "Jay-pan,"
> just as in Africa we always used to say "A-rab" instead of "errab," as we
> were taught in school. Sometimes they carried it into multisyllables, such
> as "We're going to Jay-pan-man-land" tomorrow.
>
> Pyle grew up in west-central Indiana: hence "errab."
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:
>
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>> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Heard on [adult swim]: "Japan" > [dZei p&n]
>>
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>> You would not hear that today, Wilson.  Wake County NC is practically the
>> exclusive province of relocated Yankees.
>>
>> Bill P
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 1:04 AM
>> Subject: Heard on [adult swim]: "Japan" > [dZei p&n]
>>
>>
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>>> header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Heard on [adult swim]: "Japan" > [dZei p&n]
>>>
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>> --
>>>
>>> Spoken by a Squidbilly, according to the story line, a native of the
>>> North-Georgia hill country:
>>>
>>> "Sushi? That's made over yonder in JAY-pan."
>>>
>>>
>>> The only other time that I've heard "Japan" pronounced this way, it
>>> was spoken by a step-relative of mine from Wake County, NC.
>>>
>>> No, I'm not assuming that someone playing the voice of a cartoon
>>> character is truly a representative speaker of any real local dialect
>>> of Georgia. But, I'm just saying, you know? This isn't the first time
>>> that I've heard _Japan_ pronounced as "JAY-pan" and, the other time,
>>> the speaker really *was* a genuine local yokel in his home county.
>>>
>>> This same voice-actor pronounced "out here" as [aut tSi at r]. I would
>>> have expected [au tSi at r]. But, of course, youneverknow.
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> ---

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