In the Beach Boys song Surfin’ USA, the state of California is, in one instance, pronounced the way I tried to represent phonetically in the subject line, rather than the usual way for geographical entities ending in -ia. This may be just for the sake of a rhyme (with “USA”), but I’ve also heard the same pronunciation in a rendition of the 19th century Irish folk song Spancil Hill, where it’s not necessary lyrically. So is this an alternative pronunciation that was, at some point, commonly used?
FWIW I recently heard a Victorian London music hall song that does something similar:
As I go out the people shout
‘Here he comes, clear the way’
They think I’m a millionaire, they do
From Johannesburg in South Afri-kay
Whether that was common in ordinary speech or meant as a sort of joke wordplay, I don’t know.
Another instance. I always assumed the pronunciation was tortured to fit the rhyme/beat.
The TV show credits are almost so cliche as to seem to be a parody. Ah, nostalgia.
Some trivia about “The Real McCoys:”
The family was from (fictional) Smokey Corners, West Virginia. A relative in California died and left their farm to the WV family. Although we don’t know anything about them, apparently they were of pretty modest means, and the inherited farm would be a step up.
Grandpappy Amos was raising his orphaned grandchildren. We don’t know anything more about the parents. The older son was “Luke” and the younger son was “Little Luke.” (Apparently the parents had forgotten they had already used that name.) Grandpappy and his shenanigans were the focus of most of the comedy.
Somewhat reminiscent of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” in that their fortunes had apparently gotten better, but not super rich, so it lacked the “fish out of water” theme. Coincidentally, Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale) was in one of the first episodes.
The show was created by one NYC born and raised and Irving Pincus, who had a pretty thin resume otherwise.
Is the lyric ‘Californee is…’, or ‘California’s’?
Not referring to pronunciation, just the programs’ story origins.
But, to answer the question, I always heard the BH song as “Californee.”
Alfalfa also pronounces it as “Californee” in a song in one of the "Our Gang"shorts.
I don’t have an answer, but another data point: Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian (from Glasgow) sings Californ-eye-ay in “We Rule The School”.
The mis-pronunciation is a literary device, to evoke the sentiment of the miners (less educated) that came to California to search for gold, in the early west.
Not merely less educated; it’s also code for “yo no hablo español”
It’s a catchy theme, though. Considering Walter Brennan was by many reports, in real-life, an outspoken racist, his character being “the head of the clan” is rather funny. No wonder Pepino had to sleep in the barn.
I remember liking that show as a kid. It’s available on FreeVee. A while back I tried the first two episodes one night when I couldn’t sleep and found it unwatchable.
The McCoys moved to Californ-i-ay from West Virginny, as you may recall.
While we’re in Californee*, I like the older pronunciation of the city known as LA. Los ANG a leeze has a nice, retro vibe.
I was watching something on TV and the person referred to the Big Easy city as “New Or LEENS”. Not saying that’s wrong, no, but all my life I made it three syllables: “New OR Lee-Ans”. That’s the way I thought it was said. Anybody else do that?
*rhymes with Bever-lee. Hills, that is.
I’ve always said “N’Orlinz”, the slightly midwesternized version of what I hear down there, “N’Awlins”
I only saw Nawluns if I’m making fun.
But I was thinking since my post: I have heard New OR Leens as well as New Or LEENS. I think I thought New OR leens was a reginal clipped version of OR Lee-ans
When I was a kid, my family was good friends with a family from New Orleans, and the dad once told me to say more like the “N’Orlinz” pronunciation. He said if you used “eens” as part of the name, you revealed yourself as an outsider. That would have been around 1960, so things might have changed.
I used to be able to sing the entire Real McCoys theme song. Very catchy. And the daughter’s name was Hassie, short for Tallahassee. I thought that was cool when I was little.
on a semi-related note: the city of Los Angeles.
Sometimes I’ve heard it pronounced “Los Angeleeze”.
example: Arlo Guthrie at Woodstock , singing "coming in to Los Angeleeze, bringing in a couple of keys (=kilo of marijuana)
Any other examples?https://youtu.be/KYE4-_Yzj60?t=43
I always liked the hard-G pronunciation of Los Angle-ess, has a 40s L.A. noir feel to it, or a hip boho vibe like early Tom Waits or Chuck E. Weiss. Did Waits once use the OP’s pronunciation of the state in a song? I feel like it would have been Nighthawks or Blue Valentine era, but I’m drawing a blank.
I’ve heard it said (don’t remember where/by whom) that this is a British pronunciation and that it is motivated by a (false) analogy to the way Greek words ending in -es (such as Socrates) are pronounced.
Sew crates? Me and him went to Yose mite. it was the epi-tome of fun.
That’s how it’s pronounced in the song “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”