Talk:McLean County, Illinois

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[edit] Towns

So whatever became of Holder? Every grain elevator deserves some respect. Wahkeenah 23:14, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

• LOL, I recall driving through Holder, but I don't remember it being much of a town, more of an intersection. Srcrowl 07:53, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pronuncation

Wouldn't you say the pronunciation is muh-CLAIN, with a schwa, not mac-LAYN? BlongerBros 04:18, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Yes you are right, it should be muh-clain, and not muh-clayn -- clayn sounds like just that, clay with an "n" at the end. Srcrowl 04:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
  • I intended CLAYN to be pronounced exactly as CLAIN. Either one works. And I stand by the proper pronuncation being more like mac-LAIN than muh-CLAIN. The main point is that it's NOT pronounced mac-LEEN, like the McDonald's "McLean Deluxe" sandwich a few years ago (or maybe they still have it?) :b Wahkeenah P.S. The proper pronunciation of that fast food place is "mac-donald's", although most everyone (including me) says "mick-donald's".
    • Well, now, really...I only know one person who says Mac-Donald's, and that's David Letterman. We should be reflecting the actual pronunciation. It's not for us to determine what the proper pronunciation is. BlongerBros 04:42, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
      • Well, now, really... years ago the McDonald's ads themselves used to say "Mac-Donald's". Before your time, no doubt. :) In any case, I changed the pronunciation guide to reflect the discussion. Now I'll wait for someone with a Ph.D. in linguistics to replace it with that IPA gibberish, so I'll have someone new to yell at. >:) Wahkeenah 04:55, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
        • (Sheepish grin) My major was linguistics, but I prefer the system you used, or the one that is used in dictionaries. I don't think the IPA symbols are very useful in Wikipedia, except in technical articles. How many people even know the IPA symbols? Heck, I don't remember half of them. BlongerBros 05:25, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
          • I don't have any inherent problem with using the IPA symbols, but since the target audience is presumably English-speaking, old-fashioned and hopefully unambiguous straight-English pronunciation guides should also be there if the pronunciation is unusual or not obvious. I got into a short debate with someone over the Alice Liddell article. I added that it was pronounced "LID-ull". Fairly clear, yes? They took that out and added those incomprehensible IPA symbols. If you have to link to a page and study what the symbols are, that's not a good sign. So I kept the IPA but added back the "LID-ull", so hopefully everything is peachy now. And if they do the same thing to the Eric Liddell article, I'll be ready for them. >:) Wahkeenah 05:41, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
          • Hey, that reminds me, Mr. Cunning Linguist... have you ever done, or seen, a survey of how many of the world's languages use "ma", or some variation, to mean "mother"? Anecdotal evidence suggests it is a very high percentage. Wahkeenah 05:41, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

The radio announcers say mac-LAYN, when they're being careful, and maybe a lot of the common citizenry say muh-CLAYN. Wahkeenah 08:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adjacent Counties

Is this really important enough to be front and center in the article? I don't see it mentioned in other county articles. Are we sure it is one of the few? Is there a complete list we can check? And who defines adjacent? Vermilion is adjacent to 8 counties only if you include Indiana counties AND you count the "four-corners" point with Douglas County. I vote for moving this item into "Trivia". BlongerBros 19:50, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

• Trivia, for sure. Wahkeenah 23:47, 12 May 2006 (UTC)