The Long "A's" Journey into Night

I know what ya mean, Boss . . . personally, i climb the wall when i hear ". . . and he was long-live-d . . . " (which is to say, pronounced with the long "i"). The verb is to live, and long- or short-lived is formed with the past participle. Another such aggravation is specific to my area--on public radio here, we have an announcer who, while being guilty of the long-live-d pronunciation, also thanks one of the local sponsors everyday, and gives their little slogan, speaking of their "germet" cuisine. For some reason, that irks the hell out of me. This is a man who scrupulously pronounces the French, German and Italian names of composers and titles of their works, and then cannot say gourmet properly.

"germet"? Love it! We need to send that man to the Deli Telegraph. Well, Setanta. that's almost as bad as one local announcer who talked about the "idees" of March. Got any "idee" where that came from?

Sounds Eye-talian to me . . .

heh..heh. ...an Eye-talian from D-troit who can sing the aria from Pag-a-gee gee.

Letty: Does it seem to you that mebee they are attentionally trying to agervate you? I get that feeling sometimes.

Raggedy. One of my sweet students signed my yearbook by saying: "Miss Letty, You are a good teacher, and you have learned me "alot" in your class." Hmmmmmm. I think he went on to create a Waste Management Co. and is quite wealthy now.

I've had to deal with PhD candidates and PhD's in my working life, and have been appalled by their gaffes in their "mother" tongue. The worst part of it is that as PhD's, they will not admit of any correction. One insisted that "colloquial" means a regionalism--i pointed out that it derives from colloquy, and that it simply refers to the patterns and usages of a spoken language. He refused to accept this, adamant that he was correct, even when confronted by an unabridged dictionary. Another i knew used mentors and "mentees" in his thesis. When i pointed out that there is no verb in English which is "to ment," and that mentor comes from Mentor, the man Odysseus trusted to care for his son Telemachus, it made no difference. His basic response was that no one would see this as an error--sadly, he was very likely correct in that assumption.

Well done, Letty.

I know about Mentor, but (bows head in chagrin) I thought that colloquialisms had to do with regional aspects, too.

Well, Boss, almost all regionalisms are colloquial, but, strictly speaking, not all colloquialisms are regionalisms . . . it's a fine point, but as the gentleman in question tried to bully those (not just me) disagreeing with him based on his participation in a Linguistics PhD program, i was particularly disgusted . . .

Letty: I suspect the poor "A" no longer has the strength to manifest its long form in your area because it's been pulling double-duty in my neck of the woods for that shiftless long "O." Did I mention I grew up near Toleda, Ohia?

I heared tell of Toleda, Ohia; called fer Toe-lay-doh in Spain, nuther steel town, I think.

I figger if you're goin' ta Toleda fum out West, say fum Seeattle, Worshington, when you get ta Brooklyn, Ioway, ya don't toin off, jist keep on headin' east. If you 'uz ta head off down through Muhzoora, y'all might fetch up in Nawluns, Looseyanna, er even Tixhuhs, by doggies.

A gal on NPR the other day was talking about the "Libary" of Congress. If that's the place I'm thinkin' of, it's in Worshington, D.C. ... a big ol' pile with lots a chimbleys.

Debacle, you give better directions than AAA. Yep, as near as I can figure the Mason-Dixon Line must be located somewhere north of Marquette, Michigan these days...

Howdy there, WhoodaThunk! Welcome to A2K ... great to see you and the grand avatar you're sportin'.

Yup, Ah speck yer rat bout at air ol' M-D lahn.