From ptrourke@ziplink.net Sun Apr 11 05:44:44 1999
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From: "Patrick T. Rourke" <ptrourke@ziplink.net>
To: "Classics List" <classics@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Pronouncing Thames
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 08:43:36 -0400
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> > In Connecticut the Thames River is pronounced to rhyme with
> >'names' and the  'th' as in "the".

>The Connecticut Thames has the "th" of "thin," not the "th" of "the."

As in the phoneme "eth" rather than "thorn," a distinction of which some on
the list might not be aware, Prof. Curran.  I do not think the poster
intended a distinction between eth and thorn.

One of the funnier signs of pseudointellectualism in New England is the
habit of calling the river in Connecticut by the pronunciation of the river
in old England - even after being corrected.  A better one is the
pronunciation of a young lady behind the counter at a cafe on Commonwealth
Ave. in Boston, who insisted on calling them "sc-owns" rather than "sc-ons"
{"rhyme it with 'on', not, for heaven's sake, 'own'" - Basil Bunting} so far
as to correct a young Irish gentleman trying desperately to order a tea and
scone.

Maybe a reference to Catullus might be on topic?


P. T. Rourke
ptrourke@ziplink.net
http://www.ziplink.net/~ptrourke/



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