Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Cool Beans
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:42 PM

M. Ted, I never knew there was a Pompeii in Michigan, let alone one pronounced POM-pee-EYE. Thanks!
I'm also reminded that Beaucoup, Illinois, is pronounced BUCK-up.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Tangledwood
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:36 PM

"To get back to Tangledwood's comment, Great, thank you, Kay-row it is. Cairo, Illinois may even be the town in the song as that's about the Ohio River -- yes, you got it right, it most definitely is Cairo, Illinois that is mentioned in the song."

Thank you again!


"Fair enough when it's places in America with the altered pronunciation. But when it's foreign places, even countries, like Iraq ("Eye-rack") it's a bit over the line.

Of course the British did it too when they were the top dog empire. Hence, for example, "Bombay" for what is now called "Mumbai". "


Yes, indeed! How did British explorers arrive at some of the spelling. e.g. in Fiji
"what's the name of this place"
"Nandi"
"OK, we'll spell it Nadi"

or in Australia's Northern Territory:
"This place is called Gun Gun."
"Right. We'll spell it Gan Gan."

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:34 PM

Cool Beans, you forgot to mention that the Michigan town of Saline is pronounced" Suh-LEEN", and Pompeii is "POM-pee-EYE"--

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:21 PM

Don't forger Buena Vista, Mass (Bewna- Vista). Or Peru, ILL (Pee-roo).

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 01:36 PM

Thread 36781 for lyrics "Rolling to Cairo Town": Cairo Town

Did fieldwork in that area as a graduate student. Many interesting towns on the Ohio and near the confluence with the Mississippi. Heard both 'Kay-ro' and 'Care-o'.

I still miss those Friday lunches of free catfish, available in some taverns along the river. Order a beer and a plate of fried catfish was served with it (refill if asked for). Crisp and flaky and served right off the stove, as only a catfish lover could fry it.
I hope things haven't changed too much. Haven't been back to the River for years.
Living in western Canada now, where no one knows how to fry fish or chicken.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 12:15 PM

Fair enough when it's places in America with the altered pronunciation. But when it's foreign places, even countries, like Iraq ("Eye-rack") it's a bit over the line.

Of course the British did it too when they were the top dog empire. Hence, for example, "Bombay" for what is now called "Mumbai".

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 12:07 PM

Thank you for the correction, Dave.

I was going to mention Goethe Street in Chicago, but I forgot. We don't have a Freud Street, as far as I know, but there is a Schiller Street in the same neighbourhood. I don't remember if there are any other German poets represented.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Cool Beans
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 12:00 PM

Not to be outdone by Illinois, in Michigan we have a town called Milan that's pronounced MILE-in. In Detroit we have couple of streets with unusuall prononciations: Freud, pronounced FROOD, and Goethe, pronounced Go-thee (the "th" is soft, as in "thistle.")

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 11:08 AM

Piers Plowman told us:


One of my favorites is: "Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds."

Close, but no cigar!

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."

Essentially the same message, though.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 10:42 AM

Cairo IL is also pronounced CARE-oh.

~S~

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 10:38 AM

To get back to Tangledwood's comment, Great, thank you, Kay-row it is. Cairo, Illinois may even be the town in the song as that's about the Ohio River -- yes, you got it right, it most definitely is Cairo, Illinois that is mentioned in the song.

Now about that Chicago business. We had a high school teacher who used to call it Chick-a-goo. He was just putting us on though. He talked about the actual variation in pronunciations, as well. The real variety is interesting to hear. That caw for example, is more like cah in some versions. Language is a beautiful thing.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:26 AM

LOL!

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:17 AM

I particularly like the story about when he met the Yiddish writer and humorist Sholom Aleichem and introduced himself saying "I am the American Sholom Aleichem."

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:09 AM

LOL! There's a good Twain story about swearing. Apparently, his wife got fed up with him cussing all the time so, one day, to try and shock him out of it, she went into his study and came out with a good mouthful of swearwords.

He calmly took his pipe out of his mouth and said, "My dear, you have all the notes bu there's no music".

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:06 AM

I'm pretty sure there's a Twain museum. There has to be one, I'd think.

I remember reading something about a living relative who edits Twain's old papers (probably not the only person) and publishes articles and/or books about him. There is some controversy among Twain scholars, which I'm sure would have amused him.

There is a wonderful stop-motion film by Will Vinton (of Claymation fame) which combines various Twain stories and has Mark Twain as a character. My brother pointed out that all of the dialogue spoken by the Mark Twain character consisted of actual quotes!

One of my favorites is: "Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds."

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:59 AM

Ah - a Deviant Artist! :-)

I think it's in Bill Bryson's book "The Lost COntinent" where he mentions that the Twain family house in Hannibal is a Twain museum? Hmm... the brain is really working beyond its capacity this morning.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:52 AM

Shameless plug with proper links:

Title Page

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Flying Through Space

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:49 AM

Sorry, I hope my posting didn't sound too curt.

Had another look at Wikipedia, because I couldn't think of the name I associate with Twain's childhood, which, of course, is Hannibal, Missouri:

"When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal,[10] a port town on the Mississippi River that served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[11] At that time, Missouri was a slave state in the Union, and young Twain became familiar with the institution of slavery, a theme he later explored in his writing."

I love _Huckleberry Finn_. Never could stand Tom Sawyer, neither the book nor the snotty brat himself. I love some of the later, less humorous and more caustic things he wrote, which were published after his death.

Shameless plug warning! Here are a couple of illustrations for a project of mine based on "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven":

http://lfinsto1.deviantart.com/art/Title-page-19473644
http://lfinsto1.deviantart.com/art/S-Flying-Through-Space-19473756
http://lfinsto1.deviantart.com/art/Sailor-on-Freighter-19453969

(If anyone wants to look at them, the second and third pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them with the left mouse button.)

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:40 AM

Of course. Just realised where I'd heard of Cairo - a site of civil rights disturbances in the late 60s, if memory serves.

This is the worst of getting old - jumbled recollections...

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:27 AM

No, it was Florida, Missouri.

From Wikipedia:

November 30, 1835(1835-11-30)
Florida, Missouri, United States
Died         April 21, 1910 (aged 74)
Redding, Connecticut

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:23 AM

Wasn't Cairo the birthplace of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)?

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:12 AM

Yuri Rasovsky had a very funny routine, often broadcast on WFMT's "Midnight Special" program, where he says Chicago street names using the accents of particular neighbourhoods.

I know a slightly off-color joke about Chicago street names. I'm far too straight-laced to tell it, but the punchline is "Regina, Malvina, Paulina --- and Lunt".

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:07 AM

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: GUEST,DWR - PM
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:09 AM

"Reminds me that there are a whole raft of names that are done differently in Illinois. (no s pronunciation on the end please)"


In Germany, where I live, they pronounce it with the "s" at the end, and they accent the first syllable. ARRGGHHH!!!

And Des Plaines is not pronounced as in the French!

"Chicago is not pronounced quite the way you think it should be.   You'll probably need to hear it from a native Chicagoan to get it right."

True, but it differs from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

Shi-caw-go (with the accent on "caw") is how I pronounce it, but I come from Evanston, so that doesn't really count.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Tangledwood
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:24 AM

Great, thank you, Kay-row it is. Cairo, Illinois may even be the town in the song as that's about the Ohio River.

And thank you for the additional info DWR, sure to be handy sometime.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:09 AM

Beat me to it, mrdux. KAY-ro, it is.

Reminds me that there are a whole raft of names that are done differently in Illinois. (no s pronunciation on the end please)

Just in case you ever want to put these in a song:
Both Athens and New Athens pronounce it as AY-thuns.
Both Berlin and New Berlin pronounce it as BUR-lun.
Louisville is pronounced Lewis-ville. Don't you dare say anything else around there!
Tampico is pronounced TAM-pee-co, not Tam-PEE-co.
Chicago is not pronounced quite the way you think it should be.   You'll probably need to hear it from a native Chicagoan to get it right.   

OK, I guess I'm done getting off the subject.

Subject: RE: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: mrdux
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:34 AM

don't know about the one in Ohio, but Cairo, Illinois -- at the southern tip of the state, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers -- is pronounced "Kay-row."

michael

Subject: Pronunciation request - Rolling to Cairo
From: Tangledwood
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:05 AM

A question directed to American Mudcatters:

The song "Rolling to Cairo Town (Roustabout Song)", which is in the DT database, mentions Cairo Town in the chorus. I'm guessing that's the Cairo in Ohio. The only recording that I've heard of the song is by Australians, "The Roaring Forties". They pronounce it as Kay-row rather than, as we do with the Egyptian city, K-eye-row.
Which is correct for the USA town?