[QUOTE=Ensign Edison]
Then I should win an award for incredibly nerdish message-board-related myopia in this whoosh.
[/QUOTE]
Well, at any rate, I now desire to learn more of this controversy about the birth year of Hamilton.
[QUOTE=eleanorigby]
Kaylee does look cheap–perhaps too phonetical.
[/QUOTE]
Ahem.
-Joe
[QUOTE=Inner Stickler]
Well, at any rate, I now desire to learn more of this controversy about the birth year of Hamilton.
[/QUOTE]
Short version, his d.o.b. was always recorded as January 11 but the year was sometimes listed as 1755 and sometimes as 1757, and he was equally evasive about his exact age. One theory is that he was born in 1755 but that when he attended school in America as a teenager he was embarassed by being older than his classmates and so he dropped two years, while another is that he was born in 1757 but tacked on two years to see more mature when he was on Washington’s staff. No way to know for certain. His tomb inscription does not give a birthdate but states he was 47 at his death in 1804 (making him the same age as his wife).
There’s also some question of his paternity. His account was that his father was James Hamilton, a merchant with business interests in the Lesser Antilles (where Alex was born) and a younger son of a Scottish nobleman (Alexander Hamilton, Laird Ayrshire), but there’s some dispute about this. One account I read stated that his father (who never married Hamilton’s mother) probably was a merchant named James Hamilton but that he was not from a noble family- just a Scot named James Hamilton (and Alexander being a very common name in Scotland it’s coincidence Hamilton shared a given name with Lord Hamilton). Whoever he was, he was a deadbeat dad who left when his son was a child and he went to live with his maternal uncle in St. Croix.
The social climbing Hamilton, extremely sensitive about his illegitimacy, wanted to ennoblize it a bit and found the Ayrshire Hamiltons in a British peerage book. He rarely spoke of his childhood after marrying into the rich and aristocratic (by American standards) Schuyler family. He did financially support his father (who turned up in America when Hamilton was an adult) in his last years.
[QUOTE=Zoe]
I seem to remember from a semantics course that proper names may be pronounced and spelled as the possessor of the name chooses. I’ve mentioned before knowing a Bishop whose last name was spelled “Vander Horst.” It was pronounded as if it were “Van Draws.” His brother pronouned it just the way it looks. Both of them were correct.
You may also change the spelling of your name and be correct. It doesn’t depend on whether or not it has been spelled that way previously. (You don’t have to consider the superiority of someone else’s opinion.)
It is considered incorrect if someone pronounces or spells your name in any way other than the way that you have chosen.<snip>
[/QUOTE]
I do pronounce names the way the possessor wants it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think they’re kinda silly to force English speaking people to pronounce English letters in ways that we don’t normally pronounce them. I’ll give people more of a pass for last names than first names, too, since last names have possibly been around a long time, and first names are usually chosen to be different.
Sampiro, I’m having a real problem trying to pronounce Bourbonnais as anything but Bor’-bon-ay. I may not speak French, but a lot of their pronunciations stick in the Anglophone population of Canada.
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
My personal favorite is a town south of the city called Bourbonnais. Locals have always pronounced it Burr-BONE-iss, although news anchors always seem to use the French pronunciation.
[/QUOTE]
Are you pulling our legs, 'Feena? I’ve never heard it like that, or even, actually, just Bourbonnais. It’s always “Bradley Bur-bow-nay” for Bradley/Bourbonnais. But, I admit, I’ve only known students and other transients through there, not locals.
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
My personal favorite is a town south of the city called Bourbonnais. Locals have always pronounced it Burr-BONE-iss, although news anchors always seem to use the French pronunciation.
[/QUOTE]
They must be local locals, because here in the very southern tip of Cook County, we pronounce it “bur/bin/nay”.
[QUOTE=jjimm]
Daughter of a brook, surely?
[/QUOTE]
Wins the thread.
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Huh. From Algher’s link, I see that as of 2006, “Bryan” has eclipsed “Brian”.
In your FACE, I-boys!
[/QUOTE]
“And sometimes Y,” grumbled I bitterly to the other vowels. “We should only be so lucky.”
Damn you, Sampiro! No one is ever going to ask that question in my presence ever again! You took my one chance.
I’m originally from Virginia. If you encounter the (last)name Taliaferro(a very old 17th century name there), how would you pronounce the name of the owner? Give up?
TOL-ih-ver.
Of course, you could always accuse the owner of the name of not knowing how to spell/pronounce his/her name. Or, you could slam his ancestors of being ignorant peasants, not up on spelling. Or, you could just say you learned a new thing and walk away enlightened.
[QUOTE=samclem]
Of course, you could always accuse the owner of the name of not knowing how to spell/pronounce his/her name. Or, you could slam his ancestors of being ignorant peasants, not up on spelling. Or, you could just say you learned a new thing and walk away enlightened.
[/QUOTE]
Or you could say that Robert Heinlein already did a riff on Tallifero.
WhyNot and Eleanor, the people I have heard saying it that way are older farm folk in that general area (my mother is from farm country down there). Being from the NW burbs myself, I don’t think I’ve heard it actually said by anyone else other than the newspeople I mentioned before. Seeing as how you are both from the south side and have probably heard a lot more people saying it than I have, I’m going to assume that what I’ve heard was an aberration (or a joke?)
Don’t forget the ever popular Featherstonehaw.
British, pronounced ‘Fanshaw’
in my screen name, the “w” is silent.
[QUOTE=wring]
in my screen name, the “w” is silent.
[/QUOTE]
So it’s pronounced ‘Topo Gigio’, then?
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath]
Don’t forget the ever popular Featherstonehaw.
[/QUOTE]
It’s usually “Featherstonehaugh,” but same difference.
[QUOTE=Squink]
So it’s pronounced ‘Topo Gigio’, then?
[/QUOTE]
No, we’ve been over this. It’s “Throatwarbler Mangrove,” but with a silent “w”. Sheesh.
I used to live on a street called “Erbes.” This was in Southern California, so you’d expect it to be pronounced in the Spanish fashion: “Air-bes.”
No. It was pronounced just like it’s spelled. Like “herbs” but without the h.
“Bumblefuck,” in other words.
Thank you, pulykamell. I meant that, but typed incorrectly.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
It’s usually “Featherstonehaugh,” but same difference.
[/QUOTE]
Whereas ISTR from a reputable source (Guinness Book of Records, 1971 edition) that “Fetherstonehaugh” is pronounced “Freestonehuw” - that “a” makes a world of difference.
[QUOTE=samclem]
I’m originally from Virginia. If you encounter the (last)name Taliaferro(a very old 17th century name there), how would you pronounce the name of the owner? Give up?
TOL-ih-ver.
Of course, you could always accuse the owner of the name of not knowing how to spell/pronounce his/her name. Or, you could slam his ancestors of being ignorant peasants, not up on spelling. Or, you could just say you learned a new thing and walk away enlightened.
[/QUOTE]
Hey, my wife grew up in southwestern Virginia, and was good friends with some Taliaferros, including the one the Salem Civic Center is named after.
Also, if you visit Virginia, you will be able to find such lovely locations as Buena Vista (pronounced Byoona Vissta) and Buchanan (pronounced Buck-annan).
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
I lived in Lafayette, Alabama when I was a kid- it’s pronounced lah-FAIT.
[/QUOTE]
And in Louisiana, it’s LAFFY-ette.