Lee Harvey Oswald

[Kathleen Collins]

"When he was handing out FPCC flyers, I don't recall if his voice was recorded at all on that occasion. I wonder what his first language was -- Hungarian or Russian? In the Russian tape, you know he's not speaking English correctly; it's like he was learning it."

I remember distinctly on the tape of that radio debate, the pronunciation of the word New Orleans by this person who was supposed to be Lee Harvey Oswald, and a native resident of New Orleans. He pronounced New Orleans the way people NOT raised in New Orleans, or in the way tourists pronounced the name as New Or-leens. When in reality, anyone who's ever lived there, or spent any considerable amount of time there, knows that the citizens of New Orleans pronounce the name of their city as New Awlins, NOT New Or-leens. That was my first skeptical impression of this person, Lee Harvey Oswald, from hearing his voice and speech in that radio debate.

Terry...Louisiana people I know say NOR'-LINS (phonetic, note accent).

I have heard NAW'-LINS. They do not enunciate NEW and say it as one word.

Texas people say NEW-OR'LINS.

Some southerners may say NOO-AW'LINS.

Nationally it may be NEW-OR'LE-ANS or NEW-OR-LEEN'Z.

My observations FWIW.

Jack

I just listened again to the tapes and a video of him talking to the press while in police custody. That man is not an American. But I noticed one thing: he pronounces the word "asked" the way many New Yorkers do. I myself always pronounced it like that, but learned how to say it correctly. Oswald pronounced it "agst."

[Jack White]

"When he was handing out FPCC flyers, I don't recall if his voice was recorded at all on that occasion. I wonder what his first language was -- Hungarian or Russian? In the Russian tape, you know he's not speaking English correctly; it's like he was learning it."

I remember distinctly on the tape of that radio debate, the pronunciation of the word New Orleans by this person who was supposed to be Lee Harvey Oswald, and a native resident of New Orleans. He pronounced New Orleans the way people NOT raised in New Orleans, or in the way tourists pronounced the name as New Or-leens. When in reality, anyone who's ever lived there, or spent any considerable amount of time there, knows that the citizens of New Orleans pronounce the name of their city as New Awlins, NOT New Or-leens. That was my first skeptical impression of this person, Lee Harvey Oswald, from hearing his voice and speech in that radio debate.

Terry...Louisiana people I know say NOR'-LINS (phonetic, note accent).

I have heard NAW'-LINS. They do not enunciate NEW and say it as one word.

Texas people say NEW-OR'LINS.

Some southerners may say NOO-AW'LINS.

Nationally it may be NEW-OR'LE-ANS or NEW-OR-LEEN'Z.

My observations FWIW.

Jack

I just listened again to the tapes and a video of him talking to the press while in police custody. That man is not an American. But I noticed one thing: he pronounces the word "asked" the way many New Yorkers do. I myself always pronounced it like that, but learned how to say it correctly. Oswald pronounced it "agst."

Kathy...listen again. I have listened dozens of times...He says AXED, as in hitting with an ax.

Jack

[Terry Mauro]

"When he was handing out FPCC flyers, I don't recall if his voice was recorded at all on that occasion. I wonder what his first language was -- Hungarian or Russian? In the Russian tape, you know he's not speaking English correctly; it's like he was learning it."

I remember distinctly on the tape of that radio debate, the pronunciation of the word New Orleans by this person who was supposed to be Lee Harvey Oswald, and a native resident of New Orleans. He pronounced New Orleans the way people NOT raised in New Orleans, or in the way tourists pronounced the name as New Or-leens. When in reality, anyone who's ever lived there, or spent any considerable amount of time there, knows that the citizens of New Orleans pronounce the name of their city as New Awlins, NOT New Or-leens. That was my first skeptical impression of this person, Lee Harvey Oswald, from hearing his voice and speech in that radio debate.

Terry...Louisiana people I know say NOR'-LINS (phonetic, note accent).

I have heard NAW'-LINS. They do not enunciate NEW and say it as one word.

Texas people say NEW-OR'LINS.

Some southerners may say NOO-AW'LINS.

Nationally it may be NEW-OR'LE-ANS or NEW-OR-LEEN'Z.

My observations FWIW.

Jack

I just listened again to the tapes and a video of him talking to the press while in police custody. That man is not an American. But I noticed one thing: he pronounces the word "asked" the way many New Yorkers do. I myself always pronounced it like that, but learned how to say it correctly. Oswald pronounced it "agst."

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"Some southerners may say NOO-AW'LINS."

That's the way my mother's family from Georgia/Alabama always pronounced it. Every year at harvest time, they would to take their crops by barge through the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Arkansas, to the Mississippi, on down to Noo Awlins. But, my girlfriend Beth, who was born and raised on the fringes of The Quarter, and my old boyfriend from the Claiborne district pronounced it New Awlins. Of course, please remember that phonetically, I pronounce New as Noo. When I was living on Esplanade, I cannot remember anyone ever pronouncing it as one word, like that chef down there, Prudhomme, back in the 1980's, who ran it all together into something like Nahlins, or Nawlins. I had never heard it pronounced in that bastardized version when I was living there. I assumed it might have been some kind of Cajun extraction of the word, when I heard people mimicking that pronunciation of it.

As far as the pronunciation of "asked" as "axed," it's more inherent in the black culture, or in the "off-the-boat" immigrants entering the ports of New York, phonetically pronounced as Noo Yawk, by the populace born and raised there. The Irish in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, and the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City, were known to pronounce it as "axed."

[Charles Drago]

The Irish in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, and the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City, were known to pronounce it as "axed."

And they chopped down trees with an ask.

[Kathleen Collins]

The Irish in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, and the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City, were known to pronounce it as "axed."

And they chopped down trees with an ask.

Unfortunately, I came from a Jersey City, NJ family and I pronounced asked as the A in air then gst. Agst. Mayor Koch made a big thing about New Yorkers pronouncing asked in that way. So I had to learn how to say it right; it's a bit difficult.

I notice people from that area often say schtraight ahead or Spruce Schtreet. I had to learn to leave that schtr sound out. This was in my '30's. A girlfriend of mine, who comes from Maine, recently alerted me to the fact that I pronounce tomorrow as tamorra. I never knew this.

BTW, Harvey Oswald was not an American. In my opinion.

Kathy

[Terry Mauro]

The Irish in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, and the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City, were known to pronounce it as "axed."

And they chopped down trees with an ask.

Unfortunately, I came from a Jersey City, NJ family and I pronounced asked as the A in air then gst. Agst. Mayor Koch made a big thing about New Yorkers pronouncing asked in that way. So I had to learn how to say it right; it's a bit difficult.

I notice people from that area often say schtraight ahead or Spruce Schtreet. I had to learn to leave that schtr sound out. This was in my '30's. A girlfriend of mine, who comes from Maine, recently alerted me to the fact that I pronounce tomorrow as tamorra. I never knew this.

BTW, Harvey Oswald was not an American. In my opinion.

Kathy

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"A girlfriend of mine, who comes from Maine, recently alerted me to the fact that I pronounce tomorrow as tamorra. I never knew this."

So did Little Orphan Annie.

More like, "Tamahra! Tamahra! I'll love ya tamahra. You're always a day away."

Yeah, those Noo Yawka's tawk weird.

And, Harvey was either Hungarian or Romanian.

"I notice people from that area often say schtraight ahead or Spruce Schtreet. I had to learn to leave that schtr sound out."

Hey Kath, are you sure you weren't raised in the black ghetto of Jersey? These words you're describing are definitely Harlem vernacular. Like 125th Street Harlem. Some of my bruthas' and sistas' still go around shucking and jiving like that, pronouncing ask as axed, and "Now, lishen here. Lemme get this schtraight!" But, that's usually when they're goofing on themselves or someone in the crowd, by making a point of reverting back to some kind of ebonics "lazy" way of expressing themselves. More as a way of calling attention to someone who's not acting like they've got a brain or 2 cents between their ears. Similar to something called, "running the dozens" on each other. Calling each other out, for acting or talking like a fool.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Terry Mauro

[Terry Mauro]

The Irish in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, and the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City, were known to pronounce it as "axed."

And they chopped down trees with an ask.

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HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH!

Cholley my boy! Oh, Cholley my boy! Your name in pronounced like trolley, Charlie.

I still think it's an "off-the-boat" butcher job of the lingo, by the new arrivals to hit the shores. Either that, or the dregs and "dumbed downs" continued to come in search of these streets supposedly paved with gold. They should've been directed to the Aztecs, because streets of Manhattan were paved with cobblestones.