Humidity |
The Sue Ellens Are Comin' |
Heart Attack |
Readin' and Writin' |
Cheated
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'Tucky
"'Tucky," my niece says pointing to her chest and smiling off into the distance. She is three years old and I am squatted next to her by the license plate of my car. She looks back at me and touches my shoulder. "'Rodo," she says moving her tiny finger to my license plate. Then she speaks in full sentences of undecipherable toddler language. Since I understand none of what she has just said, I do what most adults do in this case, I say to her, "Yes, Annie lives in Kentucky and Aunt Cathy lives in Colorodo."
This is similar to the way I pronounce the town where I was born and raised. "Louavul." This is the place where the Louisville Slugger is made. Some trivia for when you’re trying to impress your friends: They actually moved the plant across the bridge to Clarksville, Indiana for over 20 years but thankfully, they have returned to the right side of the river. In Kentucky, we whole-heartedly believe that even the birds fly upside down over Indiana. Okay, I’m getting off task already. Sorry. So, there is no "a" in Louisville and the "i" in ville becomes a "u," and don’t ask me what they did with the "s" but we end up with "Louavul."
So I think I’ve figured out a pattern. Where there’s an "a" pronounce it "o" and where there’s an "o" pronounce it like a soft "a." But unfortunately that doesn’t always work. The trick is knowing which vowels to convert because not all of them will be changed. This is why Colorado becomes all "o’s" instead of changing the "o’s" to a soft "a," which I’m not even going to try and say. Are you still with me?
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