'Sigh-Ox City?'

Dear Editor,

OK, I'll take the bait and put my 2 cents worth in regarding the pronunciation of Norfolk. In his Open Forum letter on 1-28-08, Mr. Housley is correct in his research that the original name for this northeast Nebraska city was spelled NORFORK. It was so named because it is located next to the north fork of the Elkhorn River.

He is also correct that somewhere in the chartering process, far away, bureaucrats changed the spelling to NORFOLK (as in Norfolk, Virginia). I would guess that they figured those German immigrants nearly 150 years ago were not very good spellers.

There were good PRO-nouncers, however, and maintained the pronunciation the way that they intended it to be. This preferred pronunciation has never had a let-up by native Norfolkans.

Growing up in Norfolk during the '50s and '60s, I never once heard anybody pronounce it Nor FOAK.

During the time that I worked in a downtown clothing store, all of our out-of-town customers pronounced it Norfork.

In fact, the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce had a business slogan that said "Norfolk Serves you Better." This was a catchy phrase because of the "R" sound in "folk."

It doesn't make any difference how our beloved Johnny Carson might have pronounced it. My family and friends have lived there a lot longer than the Carson family did. Perhaps Mr. Carson was influenced by the misguided TV and radio industry folks.

The local radio station, WJAG, stayed with the Norfork pronunciation for a very long time.

The first problems with how to pronounce Norfolk started with the three network TV stations, all located 75 miles away in Sioux City, Iowa. When they fumbled with the Norfolk pronunciation during the '60s, it created a lot of unnecessary confusion.

I suppose Norfolk folks could have responded with a "Sigh-Ox" city pronunciation for their city because the spelling sure doesn't look like "Sue City." Occasionally, I hear a commentator refer to Beatrice as BEEuhtrice, when we all know that it should be pronounced Be AT rice. How should the real PRO nouncers Kearney? CARE-NEE anyone?

I was back in Norfolk a couple weekends ago and it did my heart good to hear both younger folks and older folks pronouncing my hometown the way it is supposed to be pronounced.

Every town should be able to pronounce its name the way that local folks want it to be pronounced.

Let's leave McCook along, though. It sounds good just the way it is spelled.

Duane Tappe,

McCook

EDITOR'S NOTE -- In response to an e-mail, a representative of a civic group said "folk" is pronounced with an "r." Norfolk's mayor, asked by a television reporter, said both pronunciations were acceptable. The reporter found residents about evenly split. His report can be viewed at http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=FUWvw4WEldM