Date:  Mon, 28 Feb 1994 11:42:00 MST

From:  BBOLING[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UNMB.BITNET

Subject: Re: [El[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nojz]



   In a posting sent earlier today, which I inadvertantly deleted, the

native pronunciation of "Illinois" with initial [E] was mentioned. Here is a ni

  ce early attestation of this pronunciation. It occurs in a letter of an

Ulster immigrant who had the pronunciation only from what he had heard in

Philadelphia (indicating a formerly widespread pronunciation with [E]--

and probably final [z] too, since his spelling is largely phonetic): "hee

never Stoped till hee went to the Steate of Elinoys and he is living there

att the present time" (letter of December 11, 1850).



   Bruce D. Boling

   University of New Mexico