_apricot, caramel_

[Paul Johnston]

For apricot, I have [ae] in the first syllable; my parents, who were more NYC than anything else, had [ei].  Three syllables in caramel and Dorothy for all of us.

Paul Johnston


On Dec 18, 2011, at 7:52 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _apricot, caramel_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Although I grew up in Brrooklyn, my speech reflects TV announcers more than
> anything.
>
> I am definitely (b) and three syllables for caramel and Dorothy.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 4:09 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      _apricot, caramel_
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> My wife and I both pronounce this word as
>>
>> (a) ['AprI,kat]
>>
>> However, in my family, this word is pronounced
>>
>> (b) ['EIprI,kat]
>>
>> Somehow, over the years, I got the impression that the "proper'
>> pronunciation is (a). So, I've been using that one for dekkids. Now,
>> as I watch The Wizard of Oz on the tube, I hear the cast using
>> pronunciation (b). Having been relicensed, I shall now return to the
>> (b) of my youth.
>>
>> According to my wife, the only pronunciation of which she was hitherto
>> aware is (a).
>>
>> In like manner, my wife and I both use the trisyllabic pronunciation
>> of _caramel_. However, we *both* grew up using only a single
>> pronunciation the bisyllabic one, acquiring the "proper" pronunciation
>> only later in life.
>>
>> Neither of us can recall what the motivation for this shift was. We
>> agree that the shift is mysterious, since, as is the case with the
>> initial vowel of _economic_, variation is standard. In fact, there was
>> once a commercial featuring Shaq and some other black guy. Shaq used
>> the trisyllabic pronunciation, the other guy used the bisyllabic one,
>> and there was nothing to indicate that there was any kind of
>> preference for either pronunciation. And there's currently a
>> commercial on (national?) TV in which the white reader uses the
>> bisyllabic pronunciation without hesitation.
>>
>> IAC, perhaps this parallel shift, in our case, is a consequence of our
>> becoming familiar with the spelling and unconsciously deciding that
>> trisyllabic, therefore, *must* be "proper," lacking the 'nads to go
>> against writ*.
>>
>> Youneverknow.
>>
>> *In my youth, _writ_ was the Catholic word for _scripture_, e.g. "Holy
>> Writ" = "Holy Scripture."
>>
>> --
>> -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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>>
>
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