Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 01:58:49 CST From: "Donald M. Lance" Subject: Re: suite /sut/ Bedroom suite was a /sut/ in our family language. I vaguely recall some discussion of the two pronunciations when we acquired a hand-me-down bedroom suite from some neighbors who could afford new furniture but we couldn't. My own interpretation was that /swit/ referred to a group of rooms, not to a group of items of furniture. I was in high school at the time (1940s). I think it was our neighbors (who had more money) who said /swit/, so I assumed that there was a socio-economic factor involved, but that the high-falutin pronunciation was a hypercorrection because these particular family friends didn't have a whole lot more than we did. This was in Texas (families with South Midland backgrounds that went through southern Arkansas to Texas, i.e., both our family and our friends). The female in this family also said 'modren' (this latter datum provided for those of you on ads-l who followed that train of speculation some time ago on the list). DMLance