DCML digest, Vol 1 #1138 - 8 msgs

[Gary Leach]

Kriton:

> This still leaves us in the dark about the correct way to pronounce 
> "pizen",
> as this is not in the dictionary!

"Pizen" with a long "i" is in the patois of what is known in the U.S. 
as "hillbilly". It is meant to reflect an unsophisticated, poorly 
educated, rural character. You can pick this up in its most extreme 
stereotypical form in such inexplicably long-running TV series' as "The 
Beverly Hillbillies", "The Real McCoys", and "Hee Haw". Even quality TV 
such as "The Andy Griffith Show" frequently featured hillbilly 
characters rattling on in the best Dogpatch fashion.

And offshoot of this is the Old Prospector, a lampoon of the thousands 
of men who swarmed over the American West seeking gold and silver in 
the 1800s, and the grizzled "wacky sidekick" that was required baggage 
for most every old movie cowboy hero (and was probably an offshoot of 
the Old Prospector). Both types of characters speak a brand of 
hillbilly roughened by the idea that they've been living hardscrabble 
lives in which the very notion of sophistication and education is just 
plain incomprehensible.

Just for the record, I've always pronounced "wizened" with a short "i". 
Right or wrong, that's how it's burned in my brain.

Gary