Northerners say thanksGIVING with the emphasis on the first syllable. Most southerners I have encountered put the emphasis on the THANKS. I’m a yankee so you know how I say it. How about you?

Honestly, I've never noticed an emphasis on either syllable.

I'm much more concerned about mashed potatoes. Don't flipping tell me there won't be mashed potatoes where we're going.

I'm with Balzè Halzè: Never really noticed any particular emphasis placed on either half of the word.

THANKS...

Neither... had to try it just now to see.

Interesting

https://www.mentalfloss.com/ar...ving-or-thanksgiving

Here’s something else to stress about for Thanksgiving: where to put the stress in the word Thanksgiving.

If you’re from California, Iowa, or Delaware, you probably say ThanksGIVing, with the primary stress on the second syllable. If you’re from Georgia, Tennessee, or the Texas Panhandle, you probably say THANKSgiving, with the primary stress on the first syllable.


This north-south divide on syllable stress is found for other words like umbrella, guitar, insurance, and pecan. However, those words are borrowed from other languages (Italian, Spanish, French). Sometimes, in the borrowing process, competing stress patterns settle into regional differences. Just as some borrowed words get first syllable stress in the South and second syllable stress in the North, French words like garage and ballet get first syllable stress in the UK and second syllable stress in the U.S.

Thanksgiving, however, is an English word through and through. And if it behaved like a normal English word, it would have stress on the first syllable. Consider other words with the same noun-gerund structure just like it: SEAfaring, BAbysitting, HANDwriting, BULLfighting, BIRDwatching, HOMEcoming, ALMSgiving. The stress is always up front, on the noun. Why, in Thanksgiving alone, would stress shift to the GIVE?

The shift to the ThanksGIVing pronunciation is a bit of a mystery. Linguist John McWhorter has suggested that the loss of the stress on thanks has to do with a change in our concept of the holiday, that we “don’t truly think about Thanksgiving as being about thankfulness anymore.” This kind of thing can happen when a word takes on a new, more abstract sense. When we use outgoing for mail that is literally going out, we are likely to stress the OUT. When we use it as a description of someone’s personality ("She's so outgoing!"), the stress might show up on the GO. Stress can shift with meaning.


But the stress shift might not be solely connected to the entrenchment of our turkey-eating rituals. The thanksGIVing stress pattern seems to have pre-dated the institution of the American holiday, according to an analysis of the meter of English poems by Mark Liberman at Language Log. ThanksGIVing has been around at least since the 17th century. However you say it, there is precedent to back you up. And room enough to focus on both the thanks and the giving.

I say "Thanks-GIV-ing." But I'm a Westerner (born & raised in California), only coming to the South 11 years ago. I never knew there were different stresses on different syllables in Thanksgiving until literally just now.

I yell THANKSGIVING.

Yes.

Also of note, off the top of my head:

Southern / Yankee

INsurance / inSURance

GUItar / guiTAR

HAPPY thanksgiving.

No idea what you’re talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
No idea what you’re talking about.

Oh, on second thought, I don’t pronounce the “v”, up north, the v is silent.

Never knew or occurred to me that there are different ways of pronunciation.
Both syllables are said and heard in the same monotone.

Equal emPHASIS.

I say, "Happy turkey day".
Didn't have to utter a word this year as I smoked a turkey breast for myself and stayed home.

quote:

Originally posted by DonDraper:
I'm much more concerned about mashed potatoes. Don't flipping tell me there won't be mashed potatoes where we're going.

Oddly enough, where I ate Thanksgiving dinner there was no mashed potatoes--turkey, dressing, and gravy, yes, but no mashed potatoes.

FWIW, I pronounce the word with approximately equal emphasis on each syllable.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
No idea what you’re talking about.

Oh, on second thought, I don’t pronounce the “v”, up north, the v is silent.

Maybe in New England (they have a lot of weird glitches in their pronunciation), but not in the Midwest. (What to they say, Thanksging?)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
Also of note, off the top of my head:

Southern / Yankee

INsurance / inSURance

GUItar / guiTAR

FInance / fiNANCE