It doesn't have a thing to do with linguistics or where in the
>world you live. We are not talking about how one says "tomato" or "creek".
>This is a proper name. John North Willys pronounced his name "Willis". He
>bought the company and placed his name on it. Therefore the company's name
>is pronounced "Willis". There is a plethora of examples of the company
>using this pronunciation in their advertisements long after his death. Any
>other pronunciation is revisionist thinking or slang.
What makes a name proper? Is Jeep a proper name? Where did it come from?
Who knows? Language is an evolving characteristic of the human species.
Its' only constant is change. While some one may have a certain way of
saying their name, there is no guarantee that way will be followed. Show
100 students the word Willys, and take a stab on how most of them will
pronounce it. Does that mean they are stupid? Are they wrong for
pronouncing it the way they choose? Okay, it's proper for you to say
"Willis." Good for you. We'll write on your tomb stone " He knew how to
say the proper name, Willys." And how will most of the people running
through the graveyard pronounce the name Willys?
Or for that matter- how was Willys pronounced in 1768? Probably not the way
Mr. Willys pronounced it while walking through his plant. In several
linguistic studies I participated in, vowels changed over a thirty year
period at a minimum 3 times. So Mr. Willys may have been wrong. Everybody
knows how to say Ike? Right? Well, when Ike traveled to Europe during his
Presidency, the French pronounced it 'eek', and the Italians pronounced it
'eekay.' I doubt that any of his advisors jumped up full of indignation to
correct the hundreds of thousands of well wishers who turned out to greet
him.
If you want to use the sounds of 40 or 50 years ago in your own speech, and
claim legitimacy of your pronunciation by virtue of primary sources, that's
fine. But realize that the rest of the world is going to pronounce the
words the way they perceive them, and the way their phonological patterns
have developed. In light of this, I would say that there are better
idealogical horses to ride in relation to the military vehicle field.
===
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:08 PST