QUOTE(Hignmac)
Heaven preserve us from consistency
I rest my case,
Gregg.
"Locals" will always trump the 'educated!'
Not very convincing, to me anyway. I couldn't disagree more.
I'm reminded of several stories...
At Illinois State University, my wife's alma mater, there is a classroom building called Schroeder Hall. (I think I have that spelled correctly!) It was a running joke that you could tell who the freshmen were by how they pronounced that name. Of course, the "oe" is supposed to be pronounced as an "a" sound, as those who were well educated loved to point out to the freshmen.
I grew up in DeKalb, Illinois. It's named after some guy from Germany, Baron von DeKalb. We say it "D-cal_b" (two syllables). But, down in Georgia, it's "D-cab". That's with the southern accent, and it's wrong. When the media heads mention it during an NIU football game, they give it the Northern accent-free rendering, yet when there's a story from DeKalb County, Georgia, they become Romans.
Here in Milwaukee, there is a street named after a place in Europe (Germany?) called Teutonia. For years, I was pronouncing it as Too-tone-ya, like almost everyone else I encountered said it. One day, when for the second time I heard someone pronounce it as Ty-tone-ya, I looked it up online. I've been trying to pronounce it correctly ever since. I've asked a few long time residents how to say it. So far, none have been correct.
When the Green Bay Packers got a new quarterback about 17 years ago, the TV and radio reporters wanted to know how they should pronounce his name. He said, "It's Farv, even though it's spelled F-A-V-R-E. We know we pronounce it wrong."
Two businessmen were traveling together in Texas. They came upon a road sign giving the distance to Mexia. One said, "Mex-ee-uh, what a strange name!" The other said, "I believe it's Ma-hey-ya." They couldn't agree, so when they got there, they stopped for lunch and asked the young man behind the counter, "Please tell us, very slowly and distinctly, where we are." He paused and said, "Dare-e Kween."
Ever been to the capitol of South Dakota?
I'll humo(u)r the locals, but when not in their company, I'll revert to the correct way.
