[Ads-l] Albanians

[Laurence Horn]

I've had relatives (including my brother) and friends who lived in Albany, CA, adjacent to (and cheaper real estate than) Berkeley.  I couldn't remember if residents there are Albanians--here's some relevant debate:

http://patch.com/california/albany/poll-all-bany-or-al-bany-you-tell-us

Apparently the town itself can be either /aelb at ni/ or /Olb at ni/ and the residents can be Alb/ei/nians (like those on the Adriatic) or Alb/ae/nians ("All-BANN-ians").  Or Albany-ites.  Who knew?  (Nice to see a bit of IPA in the Comments section, anyway.)

LH

On Feb 19, 2015, at 2:18 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> The town name of Albany GA is often pronounced, by Georgians, with the the second syllable stressed: [bI].  The [l] in the first syllable is, of course, optional.
> 
> [bI]--that's an upper case i.
> 
> [l]--that's a lower case L.  
> 
> Damn these non-Times-Roman fonts!
> 
> Charlie
> 
> ________________________________________
> 
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Albanians
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> My grandmother (b. 1888) once questioned my pronunciation of  " 'Awlbany."
> She thought it "used to be" "Awl 'bayny."
> 
> I could never figure this out. Maybe she had heard "Albanians" and
> "Awlbayny" in the 1890s.
> 
> JL
> 
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=Pl-oqKdpEW-kHCiNMrq_NzXgRWqgt1f22fpFx7IBytQ&s=tNmuOunOlTqtFegwn91uwumrSOpqzo2cGjgN1Cxps5Q&e= 

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