Hi Jackie and folks,
I for one don't buy the "atmospheric pressure on the ears" as a
rationale for linguisitic/dialect disparities.
Lets try ....ethnic origins and tie-backs to the mother tongue......In
my Armed Forces travels I have lived on both coasts of Canada and the
western part of Germany close to the French border....and traveled a "bit"
in Europe.
In France alone in Alsace there is a certain gutteral tone to the French
language lending to their unique accent. Rationale? Their Germanic history
and ties. The west coast of France... there is a Gaulish/Galiec accent in
the Brittany/Normandy area. These variations are particularly noticeable on
the farms and among those not as well travelled or educated.
The same thing can be said about the Franco-phone population of
Quebec/Maritimes ....and most of them live at sea-level where atmospheric
pressues are equal , but there forebearers came from differant parts of
France.
As for the variations in spelling....education , or lack of , is
probably the main culprit. Some census takers or those of that ilk were in
such a rush.......some of those census folk where on a time-limit ,or maybe
were paid by the number of folks they enumerated. (Some may be 'political'
appointees)
Phoenetic spelling? ......Can you count my "mistakes"?
Keep the line going tho' Jackie ,I've even had people try and spell
my name as for that African country......AND I was wearing a hat with the
name 'CAMERON' big as life.
----- Original Message -----
From: <JMcMinn521(a)aol.com>
To: <CAMERON-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: August 25, 2001 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: CAMERON/Variations of spelling
Thanks Eddie,
I think most of us have, in the past, ran across
variations of spelling, and I'm not saying that there were
census taker errors, but they have received enough of
the blame, and maybe they didn't even bother to ask for
a spelling, who knows.
One thing I've learned, as in the past 6 years, following
up on research of an aunt's 35+, on the McMinn Family,
shows certain members insisted on spelling their names in
a different manner, and was double-checked and triple-checked,
as to their wills, and deeds, and found to be actually proven,
as McMinn.
You see, I go back to Scotland on both ends here, in
McMinn of Menzies Clan, and Cameron of Clan Cameron, but
here is something that is common too, in Scotland and Ireland,
is that I have found, and you as well, that pronunciation of words,
depends on the area you live, and the USA is not exempt from
this either.
We all live in different atmospheric pressures, around the
globe, and our pronunciations and accents are affected by these
pressures on our ears, that affect our speech, this is common
knowledge, and thus we have accents, and pronunciations differently.
Here is something else to consider, that in the US, our
census' of 1790 is the first, and the immigrants were speaking in
Gaelic and broken English, so my sympathy is for some of the
census-takers of the time, as they might have been also. Then again,
the census-takers may have been working from common knowledge
of the spelling of names from the area they came from.
Just thoughts to consider,
Jackie Mc
HI to Kay, in Aberfeldy, Scotland
HI to Alana, your ListManager since me.
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