Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site 3comvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!idi!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm
From: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: American routs, Canadian roots
Message-ID: <412@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Feb-86 02:21:47 EST
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.412
Posted: Wed Feb 12 02:21:47 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Feb-86 02:47:48 EST
References: <1209@lll-crg.ARpA> <2701@sunybcs.UUCP> <1400002@ccvaxa> <2765@sunybcs.UUCP> <593@puff.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil)
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 37

In article <593@puff.UUCP> tom@puff.wisc.edu (Thomas Scott Christiansen)
writes:

>> Then there was the difference between Root (Rooot) & Root (Rut).  The
>> folks would always correct us if we slipped into Rut.  But other people
>> used it.  (BTW: as in plant roots).

> I have a friend from Atlanta who corrects me every time I pronounce
> "root" and "roof" with the vowel from "book" rather that "tooth".
> He says that I pronounce it the way hillbillies do, and that educated
> people know better.  If I listen to people from my home town (southeastern
> Wisconsin) they all speak as I do.  In fact, the "tooth" sound strikes
> me as a bit pretentious, as though the speaker were trying to sound
> overly educated.  Are we all hillbillies up here or has my Southern 
> friend just decided his way is the only right way in spite of evidence
> to the contrary?  Over what geographical areas does one pronunciation
> or the other hold sway?  How about radio and tv announcers: what do they 
> get taught to say?

Growing up in Montana, I always pronounced "root" and "roof" as
in "look."  It wasn't until I moved to California that I heard
the "loose" pronunciation of these words.  If this is hillbilly,
so be it.  (No Montanan need apologize for the land he lives in!)

-- 

Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation     "All disclaimers including this one apply"
(415) 960-9367
..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm

		"I see nobody on the road," said Alice.
		"I only wish *I* had such eyes," the King remarked
	in a fretful tone.  "To be able to see Nobody!  And at that
	distance too!  Why, it's as much as *I* can do to see real
	people, by this light!"  
			Lewis Carroll, *Through the Looking Glass*