[Magdalen] Local Pronunciation.

[Scott Knitter]

On a slight tangent, I remember the days of looking for a teaching job
in public school districts, many in small towns. It was weird to
observe that each small town seemed to have a nutty-sounding (to me)
surname affixed to almost everything in town. Say it's Blardo. The
town isn't called Blardo, but lots of things within it are. There's
Blardo Avenue, Blardo Park, the Blardo local supermarket chain, Blardo
{insert denomination here} Church, East/West/North/South Blardo
Schools. You meet people called Mr./Ms. Blardo. "Just go down about
three miles to where the Blardo Feed Mill used to be, and hang a left
at the Blardo Farm Road." Anyway, everyone there thinks Blardo is a
perfectly normal name that everyone in America knows, but to anyone
new to the town, it's nuts, and I begin to wonder if I really want a
job in a town where I'll have to keep saying the name Blardo. There
may even be children born there who were named Blardette or Blardy.
(In Lexington, Ohio, where I started high school, there were two
girls, at least, named Lexanne).

Then there are the cities that have a sort of secondary name that
seems to apply to the region or acts as a poetic or spiritual name for
the place. In part of Maine, it's Kennebec; a friend who lives there
has/had a blog called The Kennebec Report. I've seen Calumet used that
way in Chicago (perhaps Calumet is Chicago's nutty local name--it's
pronounced cal-you-MET).

What does all this mean? I'm still pondering. More coffee.

On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 8:35 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> NeVAYda and El DoRAYdo Springs, MO.
>
> MURRv'l (Maryville) and SuhVURv'l (Sevierville), TN.
>
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 6:44 AM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Here in the mid-atlantic region we immediately know which city and state
>> you are referring to if you speak of NEW-erk (Newark, NJ) or new-ARK
>> (Newark, DEL).
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:15 PM, Charles Wohlers <
>> charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> > 'Tis very common:
>> >
>> > MAD-rid, Iowa
>> > Ne-VAY-duh, Iowa   (Nevada)
>> >
>> > Ber-LIN, Vermont - but
>> > BER-lin, New Hampshire
>> >
>> > And, as you know, folks in Pennsylvania pronounce Lancaster with the
>> > proper stress on the first syllable.
>> > The home of my alma mater is BETH-lee-'m, PA
>> >
>> > Now down to -20F ...
>> >
>> > Chad Wohlers
>> > Woodbury, VT USA
>> > chadwohl at satucket.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message----- From: Cantor03--- via Magdalen
>> > Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2016 10:48 PM
>> > To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
>> > Cc: Cantor03 at aol.com
>> > Subject: [Magdalen] Local Pronunciation.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > A medical school classmate of mine has died in the Two Rivers,
>> > Wisconsin area, and it reminded me of some odd regional place
>> > names for locals in Wisconsin:
>> >
>> > For example, natives say something like t'RIVers for Two Rivers.
>> >
>> > Then there is m'WAUkee for Milwaukee.
>> >
>> > p'WAU-kee for pe-WAU-kee
>> >
>> > And lang-cast-er (without any syllabic stress) for the English
>> > LANC-as-ter.
>> >
>> > RAY-seen for ra-CINE.
>> >
>> > FON-ge-lac for fond du LAC
>> >
>> > etc
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > David Strang.
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Christopher Hart
>>
>> List Mail Address: cervus51 at gmail.com
>> Personal Mail: cervus at veritasliberat.net
>> Twitter: @cervus51
>>



-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA