The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.1226  Friday, 20 June 2003

[1]     From:   Whitt Brantley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 09:20:29 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly

[2]     From:   Candace Lines <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 14:03:17 -0400
        Subj:   Pronouncing "Pontefract" Correctly

[3]     From:   Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 07:50:16 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly

[4]     From:   Carol Barton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 14:50:08 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Whitt Brantley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 09:20:29 EDT
Subject: 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly

Carol Barton writes,

>Why is 'Arkansas' AR-can-saw, and 'Kansas'
>KANZ-is, or 'Arab,' Alabama AY-rab (A hard as in hate)

Out of all the places in the world, the last place I thought to hear my
hometown mentioned would be on this newsgroup!

Although, I live in Pennsylvania now, I was born in ARAB, ALABAMA. Arab
is located in the Alabama County of Marshall, the town site was founded
in 1982 atop Brindlee Mountain.

Tuttle Thompson, wishing to obtain a post office for Arab, as asked to
submit three possible names. He sent in INK, BIRD, and ARAD. Arad, was
the name of his young son. In Washington, the official mistook the D for
a B and in 1882 the town was officially named ARAB. Due to the red tape
it would have required to have the name changed, it was left Arab. The
town of Arab was incorporated in 1892.

And now you know...the rest of the story!

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Candace Lines <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 14:03:17 -0400
Subject:        Pronouncing "Pontefract" Correctly

Pontefract is indeed now pronounced like it's spelled. I found this out
the hard way a few years ago. I was in York, trying to figure out how to
get to Pontefract. I assumed it was pronounced "Pomfret," because that's
how it's spelled in sixteenth-century texts and I'd never heard the name
spoken. The good people at the York tourist office gave me some very
funny looks.

Candace Lines
Howard University

>I understand that the locals have started to pronounce the name of
>their
>town Pontefract, and "Pumfritt"/"Pomfret" are bygone.  What shall
>the
>actors in Richard III do with that?

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 07:50:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly

Edward Brown writes, "Carol Barton and Bill Arnold would not make fun of
today's urban hip hop argot. This educated Southerner does not
appreciate their lame attempts at corn pone humour."

Excu-u-u-u-u-se me?  Look in the mirror, Sir.

I am: and what do I see, but a native Floridian, born in St.
Petersburg, Florida, in the early part of the twentieth century, and a
lover of country music, and cognizant of my roots: my ancestors came
from north Florida to Pinellas and Hillsborough and Manatee counties in
the early to mid-1800s, and were pioneer settlers of south Florida which
became a state in 1845!  Prior to that, my ancestors settled Georgia,
South Carolina and as far nawth as North Carolina; for the truly
interested, my maternal ancestors were from the nawth, so I ain't pokin'
fun at the nawth, y'all hear?  An ancestor of mine signed the Canadian
Declaration of Independence, if it matters to y'all educated
Southerners, among SHAKSPEReans, including Mr. Edward Brown.

In fact, I was NOT pokin' fun at speech, but noting that others take
themselves way too seriously with all the inherent criticism about
pronunciation by intellectuals, and I include myself as a former
professor of English in that criticism.  By the way, I have worked with
a host of Brits at newspapers in my trade days in journalism over the
decades and understand the difference quite well between the
King's-Queen's English and humble Americano speech.  Ever read Ring
Lardner?

For the truly interested, try reading this piece on early Americana I
wrote just yesterday, in preparation for a genealogical book on my
pioneering Southern ancestors:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SheffieldDuplin/message/510

It is interesting that even here on SHAKSPER we intellectuals, I say
with a sly smile, often misinterpret each other so often.  As said, I
love country music, in fact did a five-day whirlwind tour of Nashville
last summer, including its history and a back-stage tour of the Grand
Ole Opry, and that is because I am a scholar and historian, and as
anyone who follows music in America at all knows, country music is
famous for the Minnie Pearls, Willie Nelsons and Toby Keiths of the
American country music world who poke fun at themselves, do not take
themselves all that seriously, at least not ALL the time, and
occasionally look in the mirror to see our ROOTS!

Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Carol Barton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 19 Jun 2003 14:50:08 -0400
Subject: 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1210 Re: Pronouncing Leicester Correctly

Edward Stanton Brown writes,

>Carol Barton and Bill Arnold would not make fun of today's urban hip hop
>argot. This educated Southerner does not appreciate their lame attempts
>at corn pone humour.

Other than a very touchy sensitivity augmented by ESP, what---one
educated Northerner with two functional legs and feet, who has herself
lived in the southern U.S. for over a decade might ask---makes Mr. Brown
think either Bill Arnold or I was attempting "corn pone humor," or that
either or both of us would not make fun of today's urban hip hop argot?

On the contrary: when illustrating the elasticity of context, I
frequently tell my students that, were I to say only the word "mother,"
those who had positive relationships with their maternal parents would
react positively; those who had poor relationships with Mama would react
negatively; and those who grew up with no mother in their lives would
react neutrally--- while street kids would think part of the word was
missing.

It is a fact of speech that Southerners, educated and otherwise,
typically say IN-surance and UM-brella. If I wanted to make fun of
colloquialisms, I might have talked about all of the potential hernia
victims south of the Mason-Dixon who "carry" one another to the store or
to church or to the doctor's---or who "might could" and "may can" learn
to pronounce "Fayetteville" and "tire" rather than proclaiming them
"Fett-VULL" and "tahr," the first of which is almost unintelligible to
anyone who hasn't been told what it means, and the second of which
sounds more like "tower" than the rubber objects on which a car travels
to the uninitiated ear. There are at least a dozen coarser jokes about
Southern speech that would make much better offensive weapons, Mr.
Brown. Indeed: "he [rails] at scars that never felt a wound."

Best to all,
Carol Barton

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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