Since we were on the subject of geographical pronunciations, would anyone like to take on the pronunciation of "ornery"? I am from the southern Midwest and always heard the word pronounced as or-nry. My husband is from the South and hates my pronunciation--he says ah-nry. I confess, that I can't (yet) find a dictionary that lists my pronunciation, but since I do teach high school English, I want to model correct pronunciation or at least give a plausible explanation for my idiosyncrasies.

I realize this may be trivial compared to the recents posts analyzing speeches of political candidates, but my query is a lot less volatile!

Scott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

More than one linguist has been shocked to find that the educated Deep
South,including the 'genteel' poor, do not consider {thin} and {thin}
to be a minimal pair. The famed linguist Harold Gleason was shocked to
find almost an entire audience of attendees at his lecture in Spartanburg,
SC pronounced 'poinsettia' with four syllables. He agreed to remove
'poinsettia' from his list of hypercorrections.
Scott
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:39:05 -0500
From: "STAHLKE, HERBERT F" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of 'been'

Carol,

=20

Here's the OED entry for the past participle "been":

=20

8. pa. pple.: been (bin, bn). Forms: Southern ? 1-2 eb=E9on, 2-3 ibeon, =
ibon, iben, ibi, 3-4 ibeo, beo, 3-5 ibe, ybe, 4 yben, by, 4-6 be. =
Northern ? 2-3 beon, 3-7 ben, 4 beyn, buen, 4-7 bene, 5-6 byn(ne, 6-8 =
bin, 7- beene, 5- been. Not known in OE., where no pa. pple. of any of =
these verbs (am, was, be) appears. The common literary form in 14-15th =
c. was be, before the general acceptance of the northern ben, bene. =
South-western dialects have still a-be =3D ibe. (In U.S. often =
pronounced ben.)

=20

When the OED uses geographical references, they are to England, but note =
that the northern British form has the alternate "ben," perhaps =
reflecting a pronunciation rhyming with "pen." American English has =
been heavily influenced by northern British, especially Scots English, =
and this influence is particularly strong in Northern Midlands =
(American) English. Southern Midlands probably wouldn't have it because =
they merge short /i/ and short /e/ to short /i/ before nasal consonants, =
as in the pin/pen merger. As the OED entry indicates, the "ben" =
spelling was attested 1300-1800. "Bin" is the Northern US =
pronunciation. As with a lot of pronunciations, which one is right =
depends on where you are. =20

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