pronunciation of "Syracuse"

[Laura Ray]

Hi everyone, 

I am am from Upstate NY - was born in Rome, then lived in Clinton and Utica, 
then later Syracuse.

I definitely pronounce Syracuse like "sarah-cuse" (i.e. not 
"seara-cuse.") [i.e. the "yr" is pronounced /er/ not /ir/] Most of my friends 
from the area also pronounce it like that....

-Laura



________________________________
From: Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Fri, December 31, 2010 10:50:42 AM
Subject: Re: pronunciation of "Syracuse"

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Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:      Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
Subject:      Re: pronunciation of "Syracuse"
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Sounds like it could be part of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, whereby /I/ > 
/E/ in certain environments, so milk, pillow > melk, pellow.  Lowering before a 
typical American English /r/ would be even more favored, I think, than before 
/l/, and it's already happened in the 17th c. in /IrC/ environments (as in girl) 
on the way to [@r] outside of Scotland and parts of Ireland and until recently, 
Northumberland throughout English.
On Dec 30, 2010, at 6:14 PM, Alice Faber wrote:

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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"
> 
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>
> 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.
>
> --
> ========================================================================
> Alice Faber                                      faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories                            tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
> New Haven, CT 06511 USA                              fax (203) 865-8963
>
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