Sea-song pronunciations question

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: GUEST,Jim P
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 08:11 AM

As for "wind" being pronounced with a long "I":

    So now we've took that ship, my boys, God speed to us fair wind
    That we might sail to Plymouth town, if the heavens prove so kind

From "Warlike Seamen." Just another data point.

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 08:52 AM

It IS pronounced that way when it's a wynd (passageway)- which can be very windy!

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:26 AM

It's not only sea songs. I have often wondered why, in so many Irish songs about emigration, America is called "Americay." I have heard this pronunciation only in Irish songs. Is it an affectation adopted by folksingers? Or is it an authentic tradition? If traditional, was it used in ordinary speech, as well as singing? If it was ever in common use, I assume it has died out now.

Of course it is not uncommon for us to pronounce names of countries differently. Nobody in the US pronounces "Mexico" the way the Mexicans do. But there you are talking about two languages: English vs. Spanish. It seems very odd for two nations that both speak English to pronounce "America" so differently.

(Pardon the thread drift, if that's what it is.)

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: bubblyrat
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 02:14 PM

But you wind (not wynd) a narrowboat in a "Winding Hole" on the canals.

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 02:44 PM

"Americay" is used in some 19th c. song sheets Both English and American printers). I don't know if this emphasis was by the song writers, or it was a pronunciation in normal conversation.
Here is a bit from a song sheet. I picked it because of its other common 'Irishisms':

Innocent Mike
(Tune- The Low-backed Car)

I am a wandering Irishman, they call me Innocent Mike,
I came across the Atlantic on a very stormy night,
I came across the Atlantic commonly called the say,
To roam in this dear country called swate Americay.
I'll be two months here the day I'm settled down all right,
Hould on and I'll tell you all about meself, poor innocent Mike.
(and four more verses)

America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets, American Memory.
Printer G. W. Anderson, NY.

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 04:51 PM

You might still hear "Americay" among older people in Northern Ireland and probably other parts as well. Sometimes it sounds like "Americ-ya" which I take to be a transitional move towards the standard pronunciation.

How did "Canada" get to be "Canadee-i-o"?

Ross

Subject: RE: Sea-song pronunciations question
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 10:36 PM

In 1879, in a very serious poem, Matthew Arnold (English, not Irish)rhymed "Lusitania" with "say."