Remember all the moving around that happened in WWII?
Well, those people who moved around all spoke their vowels differently.
They all moved, and they all mimicked each other. Mr. Willys probably
pronounced his y as a short e (Willis), which is consistent with late 19th
century "educated" US English. Anybody who grew up in the South (which is
where the biggest population emigration occured, mostly to the North), had
problems with pronouncing short vowels, because of the influence of the
French and African dialects spoken there ( which actually overpowered the
"Southern" US English ).
As an example, try saying "tease", and then saying "tis" real fast without
fumbling.
As regional dialects changed, after WWII Willys probably changed to
"Willeez." I'll bet that if you took a survey of the employees' birth
places at Willys between 1935 and 1960, you would find a trend toward
Southern Regions of the US.
So all of you are right.
john@astory.com
http://www.astory.com
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