Melba's wrote on Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:52:33 -0500:

??>> Melba's Jammin' > wrote in
news:barbschaller-
??>> :
??>>
??>>> In article >,
??>>> "KW" <keith_warrennospamatallteldotnet> wrote:
??>>>
??>>>> My deep south (Central Alabama) grandparents often
??>>>> fought over this very thing. Memaw claimed the long a
??>>>> variant (Croppie)
??>>>
??>>> Errr, long a? Wouldn't that make it a CRAY-pee?
??>>>
??>> I thought long 'a' would be 'aa', and 'ay' a dipthong
??>> (really 'ei').
??>>
??>> But I'm only a wannabe amateur linguist, and could stand
??>> to be corrected
??>>
??>> K

MsJ> LOL. I didn't know a better way to spell it. I was
MsJ> thinking of crayfish, Cray Research, and Crayola crayons.
MsJ> :-) I see "aa" and I'm thinking Baa-Baa Blacksheep.

If you want to have a perhaps more spirited discussion you might
go to alt.english.usage or alt.usage.english. One of those, and
I forget which, has distinctly pugnacious posts. It's a pity
that, outside specialists, so few know the IPA phonetic alphabet
or, better for a text newsgroup, SAMPA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA_chart_for_English

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not