So a gazillion years ago, the major college in this town hired a New York Catholic basketball coach (Frank McGuire) who brought in a lot of New York Catholic players and brought USC a measure of basketball respectability for a few years. As I was a small person at the time, it made a big impression. All these New Yorkers pronounced the word "tournament" as if the first syllable was "tore." My mother, on the other hand, pronounced it is if referring to a mint tuna, as she is from Charleston, where talking funny is a legal requirement.
All these years later, tournaments are all the talk at Downtown U. as the women's basketball team has at last brought us back to roundball respectability. And the broadcasters working for the school both also pronounce it the "tore" way, although I'm reasonably sure that they're both Midwestern, and am even surer that they aren't New Yorkers. It's beyond me; wouldn't it be more normal to pronounce this word just like the word "tour"? I wonder if the domination of basketball by the New Yorkese in the '50s and '60s just led to all hoop peoples pronouncing that word that way. I think we need a revolution! My mom was right all along! Tuna mint for all!:)
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