Date:    Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:08:22 -0500
<br>From:    frank abate  abatef[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COMPUSERVE.COM 
<br>Subject: Re: standardization of nonstandard forms
<br>
<br>Message text written by INTERNET:dlong[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]joho.osaka-shoin.ac.jp
<br>
<br> One of my father's pet peeves is [kalvari] for cavalry.  This is a
<br>lexical thing (or what Chambers and Trudgill would group as a
<br>"pronunciation" thing; just because people say this doesn't mean they
<br>say [relveri] for revelry).  It seems to be common. 
<br>
<br>****************
<br>Happened to hear the REVERSE of this pronunciation malapropism this past
<br>weekend (Mar 7, 1998) in Exeter, NH.  It was said to me by a local
<br>resident, apparently from the area, by the sound of his speech.  He was
<br>giving me directions to Portsmouth, NH (about 10 miles away), and mention=
<br>ed
<br>a "Calvary Cemetery" as a landmark.  But he said "cavalry".  "Calvary
<br>Cemetery" is indeed the name of the place he used as a landmark.
<br>
<br>**************
<br>btw, the above is a good example of one of the things I love about the AD=
<br>S
<br>list (though I do discard many things that come in that are not of intere=
<br>st
<br>to me).  I know of no other vehicle in which a random tidbit of linguisti=
<br>c
<br>information, heard in the normal course of life, could be made potentiall=
<br>y
<br>useful to someone in a professional community.  I personally have no
<br>immediate use for this malapropism in my work, nor do I foresee a use.  B=
<br>ut
<br>someone "out there" seems to have an interest in this, and here is some
<br>evidence.
<br>
<br>One might say that "in the old days" this sort of thing would be sent to
<br>Notes & Queries, which served the same purpose.  That is true in part.  B=
<br>ut
<br>we, each of us, hear and read so many things, and it's my contention that=
<br>
<br>though every day some bits of what we encounter strike us as new or
<br>strange, we don't pause to make note of them all, and soon we forget them=
<br>
<br>(or some of them) and move on.  Nothing may come along later to remind us=
<br>=2E =
<br>
<br>I'm happy, in this case, to be able to pass along something I paused over=
<br>,
<br>that seems relevant to a thread.
<br>
<br>Sorry to trouble you with personal reactions, but I had not seen this sai=
<br>d.
<br> I'm excited by the potential for scholarship in this new medium.
<br>
<br>Frank Abate
<br>OUP US Dictionaries
<br>