POLL: Is It Wilkes-Berry, Wilkes-Bear, or Wilkes-Bear-Uh? (Wilkes-Barre, Tunkhannock: ethnic, drive)

[Baltic_Celt]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

His last name is Sedeski, and I'm guessing T is his first initial.

Hello Dear One -

I was actually just teasing Tsedeski. Sometimes it's hard to tell when we don't enter Emoticon Nation.

If I can just beg for a position with Parente-Randolph, I'll be set for life now.

You'll do fine & have plenty of time. No worries. Yes, I see your Emoticon Nation entrail...

It's nice to hear from you, KittensPurr! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble!

Lovely to hear from you, as well! Lovely Thanksgiving Day, thanks for asking, although I was in the UK, so I had Brit food. I hope yours was great, too. It's the company that counts anyway, yeah? And, nothing wrong with kippers & fish & chips... especially for a KittensPurr...

Back to the UK at the end of the week. Fun, fun, fun...
Talk with you soon.
Have fun... VV

[tsedeski]

I always use my name. I belive one should stand behind their convictions and opinions and not hide so much behind silly acronyms or word play.

[tsedeski]

and you woudl be surprised how many people ask how to pronounce or spell it. sa-desk-ee

[tsedeski]

but just like every immigrant. i am told it used to have about 6 more letters before my grandparents immigrated from poland via Canada.

[Baltic_Celt]

Originally Posted by tsedeski

I always use my name. I belive one should stand behind their convictions and opinions and not hide so much behind silly acronyms or word play.

Wow, was that a kick in the trousers?

We can each choose what's right for us with non-judgement for others' preferences. Not all of us desire our private info to become public, for many valid reasons. Many also would never post personal pics. It's not necessarily hiding anything, it could be a preference to ensure being safe or private & is merely personal choice. It appears the majority of folks onsite/online use monikers & does not mean one is not standing behind their words. True there are some hoaxes & nuts even on professional boards, but we can easily choose to avoid them when we feel something doesn't add up in their posts. But, jokers can list their names as "Bill Brown" or "Abby Adams" & still post nonsence under those false names. It's rather inequitable to assume a name reveals anything in particular. Reading a handful of posts by anyone truly reveals what's in their hearts. If you knew my "real" name, you wouldn't know me any better than what I choose to write onsite, because we'll still never know each other personally in "real" life.

It's the heartfelt meaning of the chosen words that count, whether I'm called Sally, Judy, MtnMan or Bos123. Compassionate words are optimal. A sense of humor equally so, regardless of name. I honor everyone's preference/choice & since I can't see faces, take them at "word" value. Just another point of view.

Have fun... VV

[tsedeski]

agreed. i wasn't making any accusations. most boards i post on are athletic in nature and relevant to local HS or college sports. On those boards, its more often than not when people make outlandish statements and sometimes negative comments. In those cases, i believe using my name gives more credibility. IMHO.

[nocturnal rooster]

Well since I'm from MA, I say Wilkes-Bahh. Any other way is completely wrong.

[JSedeski]

The bottom line on this is that none of the pronunciations will be correct because Col. Barre was French.

The closest phonetic pronunciation is none of the above but rather "beret"
As in the hat "French beret" or the American Green Beret, Special Forces military unit.

Knowing that...the B-A-R is pronounced as in the word barrel.
The R-E is pronounced as in the R-A in the word race.

This again is the closest you'll get phonetically to how the name is meant to be pronounced. If any of you have taken any French at all, you'll understand the tongue rolling and throaty sounds produced in that language simply cannot be duplicated in English. THAT is the reason for the ongoing discrepancy.

Now all that aside...there is correctness...and there is reality.
I think most use the Berry, as opposed to Barry. Neither of these gets the last two letters correct. Few know the history, and even fewer care.

[WasPA]

Yes, but french Canadian I believe.....I posted this previously.....happy that you arrived at it too....

Originally Posted by WasPA

Isaac Barre was of French descent, with roots in Canada. His name had a French accent aigu above the last 'e' and as such, would have been pronounced with an accentuated 'a' sound or similar to the 'et' in the word 'beret'.

In my years in the area I never heard 'Barre' pronounced as above; nor did I ever hear "Berry". ...at least remarkably few times. I typically heard 'Wilkes-Barry' or 'Wooksb(p)bare' when slurred in ordinary speech......even when somone said "Wilkes" said together with "Barre", they typically did not form the full "il" sound as much as they might when saying Wilkes College (now University).

[TheresaEmilyAnn]

LMAO I haven't even moved there and I've been wondering. It's interesting that a local isn't even sure. Possibly because I'm from NY I originally was saying Wilkes-Bahr, but I was told that it's Wilkes-Berry. My lil sister's even be making a lil fun of the name, in protesting that she don't want to move, saying that she don't want to be a Berry...