Date:  Mon, 4 Dec 1995 10:41:07 -0800

From:  Peter McGraw <pmcgraw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CALVIN.LINFIELD.EDU>

Subject: Re: On Wisconsin!



On Mon, 4 Dec 1995 flanigan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU wrote:

>

>

>   As a Minnesotan, and a (lapsed) Lutheran at that, I've always said

>   "wi-scon-sin," as do my Wisconsin relatives and two recent graduate

>   students from that state. Hence my surprise (on the NP only) when an

>   interviewee in "American Tongues" said that "people from Wis-con-sin

>   all sound like Norwegians." But, unlike Beth, I never heard an open

>   'o' in the middle syllable (only [kan]), even though I and my

>   generation of Minnesotans still distinguish between 'ah' and 'aw'.

>   BTW, since the name is from an American Indian language, perhaps

>   someone knows whether the original had an initial consonant cluster in

>   the second syllable or, as Larry Horn suggests, the [s] has shifted to

>   the stressed syllable.

>



As a West Coaster studying in Madison, I was immediately struck by the

difference between the locals' and my pronunciation of "Wisconsin",

principally by the different syllable division. (I've always found it a

great example for enabling students to "hear" juncture.) But

an open o was definitely not part of it. Rather, the locals' /a/ was

slightly fronted and raised, and nasalized, in comparison to my

own.



Peter McGraw

Linfield College

McMinnville, OR