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| View from Rocky Knob Photo by Kimberly Burnette-Dean |
I have always found it so interesting when folks who are not from this area of Virginia "mispronounce" certain words. For instance, most folks would pronounce "Buena Vista" the way that you would say it in Spanish. Of course, if you live in this area, you say "Bue-na Vis-ta." "Staunton" is pronounced "Stant-un." "Wytheville" is pronounced "With-ville." I recently heard "Raleigh" pronounced "Rally" by two of my co-workers. I have always heard it pronounced "Ra-lee." Of course, there are many others.
What are some that you have heard of?
The following is taken from: Word Book of Virginia Folk Speech by Bennett Wood Green, 1899.
SPELT CALLED
Botetourt Bot' etot
Fontaine Foun' tain, Fon' tin
Gloucester Glaw' ster
Goode Gude
Gravely Grav' elly
Lawrence Lar' ance
Maury Mur' ry
Patrick Part' rick
Napier Nap' per
Sclater Slaugh' ter, Slater
Sinclair Sink' ler
Taliaferro Tol' iver
Urquhart Urk' art
Woodward Wood' ard
Wyatt Wait
Yates Yeates
Yeardley Yard' ly
Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean.
The Warwick Road that brought settlers from the east has a silent w (the second one).
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered how to correctly pronounce Cahas Mountain—I've heard Caw-hays, K-hoss, K-hays and a bunch of others. Which is it?
I have always heard and said K-hoss. But it could be one of those that folks from different areas say differently.
DeleteIn far Southwest Virginia, Dante is pronounced dant with a short a.
ReplyDeleteMy husband grew up in that area and he took great pleasure in poking fun at me for pronouncing it like the author!
DeleteGreat post! I say most of the ones on your list like the 'called' column-and I say Rally too : )
ReplyDeleteI just love all of the different ways that we pronounce things! One of my fears is that eventually we are all going to sound the same. It would be so sad to lose all of that "flavor!"
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