"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

“Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.” (Judges 12:6)

Last Thursday, I attended the final meeting of the Framingham Interfaith Clergy Association for the 2008-2009 year. Our final meeting of the year is always in June and always at a restaurant. We met at Bella Costa on Route 30/Cochituate Road in Framingham (which, incidentally, is a GREAT place). During the course of conversation, Julie Heagney who is the representative to the group from the Framingham Friends’ Meeting happened to make some comments about where she lives in Holliston.

“Oh,” I said, “you must live near the Sherborn line”.

She did not understand me and asked me to repeat myself. I did several times, and I did not do any better with my speech than the ancient peoples who said “Sibboleth”! She looked perplexed and had no idea what I was saying.

Finally, my friend Rich Hurst, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Framingham, interjected “SHER - bin”! She got it!

My error was pronouncing Sherborn as “SHER - BORN”. I will say that I grew up in the suburbs SOUTH of Boston, and there, we pronounced Sherborn as “SHER - BORN”. The natives of the MetroWest suburbs say “SHER - bin”.

I got to thinking about that this week...why we pronounce place names the way we do, and WHAT is the correct pronunciation? Massachusetts place names can be REALLY challenging! There’s a town in north central Massachusetts called “Petersham”. How would you pronounce that? I’ve noticed that WRKO radio’s Howie Carr pronounces it the same way I do: “Peter Sham”. We say it like there’s a guy named Peter who is a phony so everything he does is a “sham”: “Peter Sham”. In fact, the correct pronunciation is “Peters - HAM”. It’s said kind of like, “Boy, Peter’s ham and eggs are the best breakfast food I’ve ever had!”

Now, come to think of it, why do we pronounce “HAM” at the end of SOME Massachusetts communities but abbreviate it for others? Framingham is definitely pronounced “Framing - HAM”. But my wife’s home town of Dedham is “DEAD - um”. Needham is “NEEED - um”. The “Gateway to Cape Cod” town of Wareham is usually pronounced “Ware - HAM” by native New Englanders, but “Ware-um” by people in the local media.

Another Massachusetts oddity is the City (or is it a Town?) of Taunton in Bristol County (going towards Cape Cod, for you non-New Englanders). Most people in New England pronounce it the way I do. They say the word “taunt” like, “Watch that cat taunt that mouse!” and add a quick “nnnn”. Thus, it’s “TAUNT-nnn”. NATIVES of Taunton do NOT pronounce it that way. They all say, “TANton” like I get lots of sun tans in TANton!

Did you know Massachusetts has a unique pronunciation for “Quincy”? In most of the U.S.A., people say, “Quin - SEE”. In Massachusetts, we say, “QUIN -zee”. Well, I grew up saying “QUIN - zee” but I actually now say, “Quin - SEE”.

It’s not only Massachusetts and New England that can have odd pronunciations for place names. One of the main roads on the north side of Springfield, Missouri is Kearney Street. In New England, we’d say, “KURN-ee”. Within a couple of days of being at Central Bible College, I learned that in Springfield, Missouri, the pronunciation is “CAR-ney”. Out there you can quickly tell an out-of-towner just by how they pronounce “Kearney Street”.

Some of you history buffs may remember the late Hamilton Jordan who was Chief of Staff during the Jimmy Carter administration. Here in Boston, we say “Jord - EN” as in “Jord -EN Marsh Company” or “Jord -EN’s Furniture”. Hamilton Jordon (and Jimmy Carter) always said, “GERR - den”.

No, this is not a real super-spiritual entry today, but if we take seriously Judges 12:6, pronouncing something incorrectly could get you killed! So I guess we’d all better be careful about our pronunciations! And for the record, my last name is not pronounced “Barrel”! It’s “Berr - ILL”!