On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:15:06 -0500, "Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at
attbi dot com wrote:

Isn't the southern one "Bufert" or maybe "Buferd"?

Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com

Right....Beaufort, in SC is pronounced B(long)u-Fut

South Carolinians have a similar heritage to British colonies like
Maine. They don't prounounce R either. Bu-fut

Charleston has a special dialect called Geechee. You can also hear it
in Norfolk, Va, (pronounced in Geechee Nofuk, which is where the Navy
sailors got it, not from their sexual discoveries).

Charleston, here, is properly pronounced Chao-stun.....

Do a google search on geechee and learn it. When you come to
Chaostun, I'll take you out to Rockville on Wadmalaw Island and cut
you loose after we take off your blindfold. The Geechee people, black
and white, will direct you back to the city and if you make it (many
don't and we have to send out the rescue squad) we'll issue you a
Geechee Certificate and put a special code on your driver's license
indicating to the local people that you know Geechee and can accept
basic instructions in Geechee, endearing you to all of them,
instantly.

Of course, drenched in coastal island hospitality, many Yankees refuse
to be rescue, choosing, instead, to stay in Rockville. Many seem
attracted to the shrimp, which sells there for $2/pound, to their
astonishment compared to "back home".

Another interesting pronounciation is one of the major islands close
in, James Island. It's proper geechee pronounciation is Ji-mile.
Makes perfect sense....reduces a long name to nearly one syllable, as
do many Geechee words.

I learned Geechee sitting at the lunch counters of the old Eckards
Drug Store just South of downtown Chaostun on US 17. Old Geechee men
used to sit and talk for hours and eventually let me sit in so I
wouldn't miss anything. Don't ask for translations, though. They
figure anyone who's not crazy already KNOWS Geechee, obviously.

Your reporter in Chaostun,
Lah-e
(Larry)