Date:  Wed, 4 Oct 1995 22:49:45 -0400

From:  Seth Sklarey <crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPOF.FLA.NET>

Subject: Re: icebox and upstate



>Lynne writes,

>

>>well, to my mind, the lower hudson valley is not upstate--anything

>>south of albany (and not in the southern tier) is downstate. but

>>nobody asked us western new yorkers.

>

>Clearly, as we've been seeing, it's all relative--in fact we all seem to be

>operating with maps in our heads corresponding to that famous Steinberg New

>Yorker cover. But what I was particularly curious about was...

>

>>Lynne, from newark, new york (NO! NOT NEW JERSEY!)

>

>whether Lynne and her fellow-Newark(NY)ers disambiguate their home town the

>way people in New-ARK, Delaware do. At least I assume the latter is one level

>a conscious attempt to dissociate Newark, Del. from the "real" Newark, rather

>than just a local practice on the level of CHAY-lie, NY (in Greece-Chili, the

>suburb of Rochester), KAI-ro (Cairo) Illinois, BER-lin Conn., etc. (I suppose

>the various BER-lins may be disambiguators too, especially if the pronunciation

>shifted around 1914.)

>  Does anyone happen to know if there's a treatment of this variety of taboo

>avoidance?

>

>Larry

>



For my two cents I will add Salina, Kansas and Salinas, California, one of

which is

pronounce Saleena, and the othe Sal-I-nas. Which of course led to the age-old

question: Is the capitol of Kansas pronuonced Witchitaw or Wicheeta? A geography

gold star to the "correct" answer.



Seth Sklaey

Wittgenstein School of the Unwritten Word

coconut Grove, FL