Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 00:06:48 -0400

From: ALICE FABER faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU

Subject: culinary excesses



Tom Clark wrote:



| Around here (Las Vegas) we have the most powerful union of all (step back

| AFL-CIO, geddawdahere Teamsters!): the CULINARY union.

|

| Each year the Nevada Language Survey conducts a survey on:

| /K[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]l/ (schwa)

| /KYUL/

| /KOO/ (/ku/ for those in the know)

|

| Nearly every year since 1976 the results have changed. I suspect it is

| due to the local television news broadcasters or the blue-jowled leaders

| of the union who change every few months. But each year it has been

| different. Almost each year.



Rima McKinzey wrote:



| I've heard both variants for culinary often enough, the first sy\llable of

| one rhyming with "dull" and the other with "few"- but I've never heard one

| rhyming with "too." Is this really common in Nevada?



Tom Clark wrote:



| /ku/ is rare and seems to me to be a hypercorrection or

| hyperurbanization. I've noticed it when someone is trying to be VERY

| articulate in an interview or on TV.



******************************************************************************



I can see I'm going to have to pay attention to how the CIA is referred to

next time I visit my parents; in the Hudson Valley (which, btw, is a non South

Midlands or any other kind of Midlands enclave of postive _anymore_), of

course, CIA refers to the _Culinary Institute of America_, training ground for

high-priced members of the union about which Tom writes. [[note for tourists:

it's in Hyde Park NY, near the FDR Library, and has several restaurants on

premises, so the budding chefs can practice...]] Now that I'm thinking about

it, I don't know whether I'd say /kyu/-linary or /kull/-inary (as in _cull_ or

_pull_, which have the same vowel for me); I can't imagine /ku/-linary.



Alice Faber