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anyone know? i assume it would rhyme with pay gRoSS uh with a very french sounding R and very sibilant SS (both underlined) and the "uh" kind of soft
Yes, from an 1880 book:
Quote:
In the city of New York there has been of very late years a remarkable change of name effected by this rule of spelling-book. "What," said to me an elderly gentleman, a member of a highly respected old New York family, "what do these people mean by Dezbros-sez Street? There's no such street. The name is De Broose Street." He then informed me that the street was named after a family whose name was spelled " Desbrosses," but pronounced De Broose,and that until it appeared on the street cars it was always so pronounced. I myself have been astonished to hear the family name of an old friend and college classmate of mine—Van Schaick, which time out of mind was pronounced Von Scoik — lately spellingbooked into Van Shake. This solicitude to conform sound to letter has become a disease among us. It exists in no other country; and here it is due chiefly to common school teaching.
I did not read every single post in this thread, however I do have a question:
I was in NY last month and my friend, who has been living there for about two years, mentioned to me that the locals pronounce "Houston" like "Hows-ton" or "House-ton". My question is, if the locals do pronounce it like "Hows-ton", then why don't you say "So-How" instead of the commonly heard "So-Ho"?
One that has gone, or is going, or perhaps never was, is the putative "correct" New York pronunciation of Broadway:
BroadWAY, with stress on the second syllable seems to have been in at least semi-regular use back before c. 1970 (maybe even have to go back a decade or two).
Almost no one stresses it like this today, but I do know a few old time New Yorkers that do. One is a commercial RE broker located on Broadway. It's also possible to find such pronunciations in interviews and films, but it seems to sit side by side with the more common pronunciation as well.
I'm a big movie buff and the word Broadway has been used hundreds or even thousands of times and never have I heard BroadWAY.
And "That's the BROAD-way Melody."
So "Give my regards to BROAD-way"
I did not read every single post in this thread, however I do have a question:
I was in NY last month and my friend, who has been living there for about two years, mentioned to me that the locals pronounce "Houston" like "Hows-ton" or "House-ton". My question is, if the locals do pronounce it like "Hows-ton", then why don't you say "So-How" instead of the commonly heard "So-Ho"?
"House-ton" is the proper pronunciation for a name that has been around since the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. "Hyoo-ston" was some idiot's 19th century idea of how to pronounce his name. It's been called "House-ton" Street since well before the Texas city was founded.
I'm a big movie buff and the word Broadway has been used hundreds or even thousands of times and never have I heard BroadWAY.
And "That's the BROAD-way Melody."
So "Give my regards to BROAD-way"
"House-ton" is the proper pronunciation for a name that has been around since the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. "Hyoo-ston" was some idiot's 19th century idea of how to pronounce his name. It's been called "House-ton" Street since well before the Texas city was founded.
I understand that. My question was that why do people say "So-Hoe" instead of "So-How" if it's pronounced like "House"?
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