Wapsi Square Forum

Jabberwonky wrote:

Hansontoons wrote:That would be the correct pronunciation. But look for it on maps and you see Cut and Shoot.

Just more proof on the Conspiracy of Jealousy from the rest of the lesser states against the Great State of Texas. I bet that map was made above the Mason/Dixon line... Whar's muh boots an' mah shootin' ahrn?

Pronounce it however you choose, my friends... but the town's official name is "Cut and Shoot" according to their very own website. That's how they chose to officially incorporate (by local election) back in 1969, although the name itself dates back to around 1912.



(Sorry, that doesn't show very well in-line - the full image is visible if you open it in a separate browser tab/window, or look at the town's home page I linked to above.)

As to those thinly-veiled slurs against us damnyankees... why, I recall hearing that there was a terrible conjunction drought taking place in Texas back a century or so ago, and Texas was sent several freightcar loads full of lightly-used conjunctions collected by school children and church social groups up in New York and Massachusetts.

There's every chance that the "and" in "Cut and Shoot" was first spoken by a teacher or minister in Boston, carefully collected and gently packed by a Yankee child, and sent down to Texas to alleviate the effects of the grammar drought.

I wonder if that little girl would think her "and" has been treated with proper respect?

Incidentally, in researching this I was reminded of some history most people haven't encountered.

The use of 'n as a local substitute for and has a rather heroic back-story. It dates to the 1930s, during the great Vowel Plague which spread across most of the United States and decimated letter crops nation-wide. Probably imported by accident on some plants from Kyrgyzstan, the virus attacked linguistic crops of many types; the tougher consonants usually survived, but the tender vowel vines were stunted and would die before harvest with their fruits shrunken and useless. Coming on top of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, this was the last thing America needed.

Shortages of vowels were severe all across the country. Many areas had to institute rationing. Things got so bad that a coalition of newspaper publishers, Puritans, and former Temperance Society members began advocating "silent sex" as a remedy... on the grounds that one noisy parental orgasm could use up enough vowels to supply a family of four with conversation for a week. They lobbied for legislation to enforce this rule, but (having just come out of a decade of alcohol Prohibition, with its speak-easies and bootleggers and organized crime) the public wanted nothing to do with the idea.

Fortunately, the country got by without such extreme measures. Vowel conservation in casual conversation, a change to a less florid style of public speaking and newspaper writing, and recycling of letters from day-old newspapers tided the country over until the Luther Burbank Center was able to breed several lines of virus-resistant letterplants.

So, Texans, be proud of your pronunciation! The vowels your grandparents conserved by saying 'n instead of and, saved married couples all across the nation from a fate worse than (mmmph).

Dave wrote:Pronounce it however you choose, my friends...

Oh that's a given. We pronounce a lot of things how we choose. For further reference, see the cities of Palestine (PAL-ess-teen...not to be confused with how the Middle Eastern country is pronounced) and Mexia (muh-HEY-uh...don't care how you think x's should be pronounced...nor do we care that there's an i in there)...and I'm sure there are loads of other examples of "WTF Pronunciations" in Texas that I'm just too work-scrambled to remember at the moment.

Is Cut and Shoot like point and click?

shadowinthelight wrote:Is Cut and Shoot like point and click?

Naw... they're NORTH of the Mason Dixon Line...

Julie wrote:

Dave wrote:Pronounce it however you choose, my friends...

Oh that's a given. We pronounce a lot of things how we choose.

Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

Typeminer wrote:

Julie wrote:

Dave wrote:Pronounce it however you choose, my friends...

Oh that's a given. We pronounce a lot of things how we choose.

Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

I know some people named Dubois the way you pronounce it.

I never noticed anyone in Texas having an accent when i visited back in 75. They just sounded like educated versions of what i said.

I've added my vague, general, possible location to Dave's map. And that's the most precise location data I'll be posting online in public view.

GlytchMeister wrote:I've added my vague, general, possible location to Dave's map. And that's the most precise location data I'll be posting online in public view.

That's perfectly fine... I see no reason why people shouldn't "fuzz" their locations by any amount they feel is appropriate. "General area of the state" is plenty close enough for the sort of purposes that this map was intended to expedite.

If anybody cares, my current location is close-enough to Marrowstone Island. And will probably remain so until sometime in March or April.

Julie wrote:I know some people named Dubois the way you pronounce it.

Might be descendants of the same family. There was a brewery that made DuBois Budweiser beer when I was a kid, but I think it was named for the town, not run by the family. No idea whether the beer was any good. (A reminder that Budweiser was originally a style, like Pilsner and Dortmunder. Another reason why AB is evil. )

Typeminer wrote:Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

And don't forget Lancaster (LANK-stir, for the locals...)

lake_wrangler wrote:

Typeminer wrote:Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

And don't forget Lancaster (LANK-stir, for the locals...)

My mother is from Monroe, La. (MON-row) and I did a fair bit of my growing up in LA and in TX on the border between the two. So I palled around with Dubois (DEW-bwah), Geautreaux (GO-troh), Robideaux (ROW-bih-doh) Ect.
One time as I was transiting out of FOB Salerno for RnR, I was sitting with a friend that had been transferred to Bagram and worked in the Rec center. As I was sitting there, I would call out the names of soldiers from a list to use the interwebs connected computers. The name Comeaux came up on the list and I called over the intercom for (COH-mo). A soldier came to the window laughing and told me I was the first person to pronounce his name correctly in years.

Julie wrote:

Dave wrote:Pronounce it however you choose, my friends...

Oh that's a given. We pronounce a lot of things how we choose. For further reference, see the cities of Palestine (PAL-ess-teen...not to be confused with how the Middle Eastern country is pronounced) and Mexia (muh-HEY-uh...don't care how you think x's should be pronounced...nor do we care that there's an i in there)...and I'm sure there are loads of other examples of "WTF Pronunciations" in Texas that I'm just too work-scrambled to remember at the moment.

Bedias (BEE-dies) and Boerne (Bernie) come to mind. Near Madisonville (and closer to Normangee, pronounced Norman-gee ) there used to be a town named Mecca, the locals pronounced it as "Mekker". My daughter had a great-great grandmother who lived in the area (we do have a five-generation photo) named Alva. Of course, her name was said as "Alver".

During my bicycle tour, this summer, I rode through a town in Maine called Machias (muhtch-EYE-es)...

lake_wrangler wrote:

Typeminer wrote:Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

And don't forget Lancaster (LANK-stir, for the locals...)

LANK-is-ter, to be precise. Mispronounced even in most of the rest of Pennsylvania.

Typeminer wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:

Typeminer wrote:Well, despite what people say about Texas (and they say a LOT ), Texans have no monopoly on peculiar pronunciation. Here in Pennsylvania, we have Dubois (DEW-boys), Versailles (ver-SAILS), and Yoghiogheny (YOCK-a-GAY-nee). And we won't even mention Ephrata and Pequea.

And don't forget Lancaster (LANK-stir, for the locals...)

LANK-is-ter, to be precise. Mispronounced even in most of the rest of Pennsylvania.

When I was there, I'm pretty sure they pronounced it as a 2-vowel noun. Either that, or the middle vowel was there, but barely so.

My father was born and raised in Oconomowoc.

lake_wrangler wrote:When I was there, I'm pretty sure they pronounced it as a 2-vowel noun. Either that, or the middle vowel was there, but barely so.

It's like listening to BBC News and hearing them talk about the Secret'ry of State or anything to do with the milit'ry.