Why do some people pronounce "Washington" as "Worshington"?

[bluestateguy]

Just wondering. It seems like a lot of midwesterners say "Worshington".

[Bluzmann57]

1. Yup. And we also

warsh our hands and warsh our clothes as well. Just a Midwestern thing I guess.

[RoBear]

7. And after warshing

we rench them. (I grew up with an old-fashioned washing machine with a wringer--anybody remember those???)

[ktowntennesseedem]

10. East Tennesseeans warsh and rench things too.

Didn't grow up with a wringer/washer, but my grandparents had an old one in the attic of the farmhouse.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I'm in the Midwest and my parents say it that way but not people my

age - and I'm 35. We always give my parents a hard time about it.

[nytemare]

3. Some people from the DC area, Maryland, VA and WV do too

I pronounced it that way until maybe 10 years ago. I would also "warsh" my clothes. I loved my "Warshington Redskins". I think it is just a dialect thing, like "yah" instead of "Yeah".

[TexasProgresive]

5. Yep, Mom was from Fredricks and

she said Warshinton and warsh. I think she did it on purpose because she didn't mispronounce anything else. 2 of my younger sisters lived with her when on a temporary assignment on Long Island and to this day they call that place Lon giland.

[nytemare]

12. People from the DC area (Maryland, VA, even WV)

Don't really have much of an accent, the "warshington" phenomena is an exception.

Strange stuff.

On edit: Sometimes I am a bit redundant. :)

[Cobalt Violet]

4. Newt Gingrich does it bad everytime. n/t

As a Bostonian I know I don't pronounce the letter r much but I can't figure why people pronounce them in words that don't have them.

[TexasProgresive]

8. But your broad a's make up for the lack of RRRRRS. n/t

[njdemocrat106]

6. I remember Dave Letterman once joked that back in Indiana...

they pronounced Washington "Worshington" and President Clinton was "Parsident Clinton". A Midwest thing, I guess. (And as a New Jerseyan, don't tell me it's CAH-fee. It's CAW-fee! :) )

[BiggJawn]

11. David Letterman used to cross Fall Crick, too.

We don't catch Crayfish in the creek, we ketch crawdaddies down at th' crick...

Read James Whitcomb Riley (the Greenfield town drunk)to get an idea how people from Indiana talk.

[BlueHandDuo]

9. Hypercorrection of a perceived non-rhotic pronunciation...

...by a rhotic speaker.

Hope that clears it up for you.

[Dookus]

13. My mom's from Pennsylvania

and says "warsh" and "Warshington". It's pretty widespread.

[deadparrot]

14. I don't know, but my 6th grade social studies teacher did it

and it damn near killed me.

[steely]

15. I had a friend growing up in Philly who did that.

He would also say tellypole and ray-diator - strange because we (former) fluffyians (philadelphians) had our own way of pronouncing certain words; wodder, sto-er, sawng, etc.