[Ads-l] The name, "M(a)cPherson"

[George Thompson]

A follow-up --

As has happened before, while I was trying to regularize the type faces in
my message, I hit the send button by mistake.

GAT

On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 10:23 AM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
wrote:

>
> Check out "MacPherson Is Rehearsin' To Swing", a record from the mid-late
> 1930s, by the Chick Webb band, with Ella Fitzgerald.  The band achieves
> bag-pipey sounds, and Ella sings in a more or less Scots accent.
>
> The lyrics include "Now the bonnie, bonnie lassies
>
> With the kilties on their chassis
> Have forgotten all about the highland fling
>
> Young and old folks get together
> And there's trucking in the heather
>
> When McPherson is rehearsing to swing" (from a transcription found
> throught he services of Mr. Google.
>
>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyas6KYlAPM
>
> On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>
>> On 11/2/2014 2:09 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      The name, "M(a)cPherson"
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -------------------
>>>
>>> In general, I pronounce this name as "MacFURson," despite the fact that
>>> the
>>> "standard" BE pronunciation is "MacFEERson." (In StL, a local street that
>>> Redd Foxx once lived on is named "ManPherson.") However, with the passage
>>> of decades, it began to seem to me that *everybody* used MacFEERson" and
>>> not merely the boyz in the 'hood. Elle MacPherson comes to mind. I began
>>> to
>>> wonder how I ever got the impression that "MacFURson" was "proper."
>>>
>>> The other night, AMC re-ran the 1944 movie, Laura, in which "MacPherson,"
>>> pronounced throughout the movie as "MacFURson," is the name of a major
>>> character. As it happens, I saw this movie, back in that day. So, I
>>> assume
>>> that this is the source of my long-time impression that the "correct"
>>> pronunciation has -FUR-, in line with the spelling.
>>>
>> --
>>
>> As I recall, my relatives with this name were always called "M[a]cFURson"
>> within the family.
>>
>> The Scots pronunciation usually sounds like "M[a]cFAIRson" to me.
>>
>> -- Doug Wilson
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998..
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org