Willys ?

[TAKerry]

Dandy Daves thread has me pondering, again. I didnt want to hijack so figured I would ask here. 

 

What is the proper pronunciation?  And do we really know? Anyone have first hand real experience from the a father/grandfather that may have called the name out?

I have heard the guys on the auction shows say it one way and everyone I know has always said the other. I asked this on another forum a few years ago and not surprisingly no definitive answer.

 

1.Wil-eees

2. Wil-lis

[TerryB]

Jeep whiz, I don’t know🤔.

[Dosmo]

This is from the publication "Willys - The Complete Illustrated History 1903-1963".

 

 

[John_S_in_Penna]

16 minutes ago, TAKerry said:

What is the proper pronunciation?  And do we really know?

Anyone have first hand real experience from the a father/grandfather that may have called the name out?

 

The name is very widely mispronounced among

latter-day car fans.  However, I agree with Dosmo

above, and the answer is not in question in the least.

 

Here is how the company itself pronounced the name--

the first-hand account we need today.  The name is

pronounced "Willis" TWICE in the first 15 seconds:

 

 

 

 

 

[padgett]

I always heard it Wil-lis the car but Willies Jeep. Thought was two different thangs.

[Alex D.]

I have owned a Willys Jeep for more that 45 years and have always pronounced it Wil-leez knowing the proper pronouncing is Willis. I just cant seem to brake the habit.

[60FlatTop]

No matter how cold it gets you still pronounce it - Chilly Willis.

[60FlatTop]

I have a thing about correcting pronunciation. If the intent was to communicate and the communication was successful enough for the listener to provide a correction, maybe the listener should just consider communication complete and keep quiet.

 

A former friend was quick to correct during conversations. He told me if we were in a conversation with a third party and I mispronounced a word he would be embarrassed by me. Again, that was a former friend.

 

Bernie

[alsancle]

Willis

[Dosmo]

I recall reading that John North Willys made the statement that he did not care which way the name was pronounced, so long as people continued to buy his cars.

[rocketraider]

"ys" in a proper name should pronounce as "iss".

 

To tie in with Spring Carlisle and south central PA, Gettysburg is correctly pronounced "Gettissburg". The folks who live there will tell you that. They've also told me Southerners are more likely to pronounce it correctly than Midwesterners.

 

So yes- John North Williss and his namesake cars.

[knee-action]

I can remember the TV commercials from back in the day. WILLIS it is. 

[Billy Kingsley]

Tell people that it sounds the same as Bruce Willis's name. Non car people probably know who he is. 

[George Smolinski]

You can not, MUST not call this a Wil-lis. You MUST call it a Willeez. If not, you will be beaten severely about the head and shoulders with a 4 speed shifter handle. BTW, I'd give both of them & my non-shifting arm for this car. 

[60FlatTop]

I can empathize with John Willys. Imagine if he had my first name, Bernard. Bernard Willys would really get brutalized. My mother told be it was pronounced like the transmission you shift by hand after you push the clutch in, Standard. No one believes me and they try to correct me, kind of like the way I was forced to write with my right hand in school.

 

Life is not always easy among.....

[rocketraider]

Round here Bernard as a given name is pronounced BERnard. As a family name, BerNARD. I have no idea why but the BerNARD family will quickly correct you, and they're all "testy" sorts. I personally think they're all about half crazy, but...

 

A friend's dad's name was Bernice, pronounced BERnice. This big strapping machinist had a hell of a time with people who couldn't fathom a man named BerNICE.

[knee-action]

I'll probably get banned off this forum for life for what I'm about to say: I think there several examples of cars that look better in modified form than they do in stock form. Look again at that 41 Willys gasser posted by Mr. Smolinski just above. Drop dead gorgeous. OK Peter, hit the DELETE button 😁.

[padgett]

I remember Willis gassers, mainly with a Cad or Olds J2, some with a 6-71 and a LaSalle tranny.

[wayne sheldon]

My wife's grandfather's name was Shirley Eugene Callihan, and went by Shirley most of his life. He grew up in the Northern California lumber camps, and was one of the nicest best men I ever met. A hard worker that always took good care of his family and friends. One of Linda's cousins however, wasn't too pleased to be named after him.

 

As for the 'gasser'? I do appreciate their place in racing history. However, I really do also wish that more of the cars had been saved and preserved as they were originally.

 

As for spellings and enunciations? Up in Eureka, is a street named after a late 19th century local ship's captain. Long-time local families know the name is said as 'Booner' street. But it is spelled 'Buhne'. It causes all sorts of troubles when outsiders ask for directions!

 

Linguistics! And etymology! Such fascinating subjects.

[60FlatTop]

I have the Eugene middle name, pronounced Owen. Daily seems to be a tough name for others. It has its origin in the Dail Erieann, I thought about changing it. Dalton appears easy enough. So Owen Cornelius Dalton was the plan. But I never got around to it, kept going off on tangents. Maybe the OCD initials just weren't for me.

[28 Chrysler]

Mt uncle gave me the willies but I inherited his 1952 Willys.   (willis)

[Hudsy Wudsy]

John North Willys, Dobie Gillis and Mel Tillis. If that isn't enough, try to remember the author, the late Phyllis Gillis, or the other four Phyllis Gillis on Linkin:

5 "Phyllis Gillis" profiles | LinkedIn

 

 

 

[Hudsy Wudsy]

On 4/24/2021 at 6:03 PM, Jack Bennett said:

I'm fairly sure if John Willys name was John Willis, he would be the very first to recognize the absurdity of calling Harvey Weinstein Harvey Winestine.

I once heard an author of a Leonard Bernstein biography interviewed. When questioned about the proper pronunciation of Bernstein,  he explained that the Jewish who immigrated to America in the 1880s were mostly from Germany and were comfortable financially. They pronounced the "stein" part of their names with a long "I" sound. Then many more Jewish arrived from Russia and Ukraine around the turn of the century. These customarily pronounced their "stein" names with a long "E" sound. These newer Jewish mostly arrived penniless. In time they came to admire the affluent, settled Jewish who arrived before them and many of them adopted the Stein long "I" sound of the German Jews. As best as I can tell it's really up to the bearers of such names to state a preference for pronunciation. I'll be curious to know what others know about the subject. I'm all Irish, so what the hell do I know?

Edited April 28, 2021 by Hudsy Wudsy (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

This is the most comprehensive statement on the topic.

 

[TAKerry]

22 hours ago, rocketraider said:

"ys" in a proper name should pronounce as "iss".

 

To tie in with Spring Carlisle and south central PA, Gettysburg is correctly pronounced "Gettissburg". The folks who live there will tell you that. They've also told me Southerners are more likely to pronounce it correctly than Midwesterners.

 

So yes- John North Williss and his namesake cars.

Never heard this but then again.  I have always pronounce it Gett-EEES- burg. I suppose not necessarily proper term as much as local dialect?

and for those that dont know its Mare-land. Not Mary-land.

[SC38dls]

Shirley and Bernice are lucky they never met Johnnie Cash!  

[rocketraider]

1 hour ago, TAKerry said:

and for those that dont know its Mare-land. Not Mary-land.

Where they drink "wudder" and go "downy ocean" in summer!

 

My cousin and her husband were born in Baltimore and lived there 50-some years. They moved to Charlotte 11 years ago and while they've picked up some of the NC dialect, the "Bawlmer" still shows thru, hon!

 

Would be a boring world indeed without regional speech. 

 

Re John North Willys and Bruce Willis, my money says the names have the same origin, probably Welsh, and got corrupted when an early Willys came to America and an immigration clerk wrote it down as pronounced. I've seen that in my own genealogy research. My maternal side is Buckner and we had always thought it was German. Turns out they were originally Bukenore from England. And great googly-moogly at the variants in how it's spelled now (no, not "mohg" as in synthesizer! Gallagher is right. English is a ridiculous language!)

 

So, "Hooked On Phonics" was nothing new!

[JamesR]

Quote

Re John North Willys and Bruce Willis, my money says the names have the same origin, probably Welsh....

 

Good observation. I'd never thought about that. There are a lot of Welsh names with a "y" that's given a short "i" sound.

 

My dad, who was born in 1920, told me a long time ago that the correct pronunciation of the car brand was "willis." He wasn't a car guy at all, but just remembered when they were being sold new. I'm guessing that a lot of (or maybe most) guys with $100,000 fiberglass bodied '33 and '40 - '41 coupe gasser builds are saying "willees." Not at all saying that's wrong or dumb. That's sometimes the way language works. One the usage hits a certain critical mass, things change.

 

I'm actually more disturbed by the "Boston Seltics" 😄. That's never going to change, yet "keltic" has is found almost exclusively in discussions about ethnicity or European history.

[John_S_in_Penna]

1 hour ago, JamesR said:

I'm guessing that a lot of (or maybe most) guys with $100,000 fiberglass bodied '33 and '40 - '41 coupe gasser builds are saying "willees."  Not at all saying that's wrong or dumb.

 

Yes, a friend who sells Jeep parts says "Willees,"

and he's an intelligent man.  I never had the heart

to correct him.

 

But I will say:  It is wrong.  And if 90% of the people

mispronounce it, it is still wrong.  Mr. Willys is the 

one that named his own company.

 

I bet Mr. Willys would be glad that people are enjoying

his cars in multifarious forms, decades after they 

ceased production--and I bet he learned patience

with his name being mispronounced even when he was alive!

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Hudsy Wudsy]

Yeah, Boston "seltics" really bugs me. It's the sort of thing I blame on the English, whether they deserve it or not.

[TAKerry]

I will hijack my own thread, Thomas Jefferson lived in Monticello (Chello is proper? and how the Virginians pronounce) which is Italian for little mountain.  I was working in Monticello NY and there it is Monte-Sello.

Versailles (ver-sigh) as in the French palace, is pronounce Ver-Sales in Lexington KY.  I suppose the list can go on and on.

 

And, I never knew I had a 'Merlin' accent until on a trip to Vermont many years ago. We were casually talking amongst ourselves and a lady came up to me and said 'you are from Maryland, I can tell by your accent'. Which I thought was kinda funny because to me she was the one speaking with the New England accent.

[SC38dls]

Kentuckians pronounce Versailles as

Ver-sales because it rhymes with horse sales and the track there, Keenland is on the edge of Lexington and Versailles, has some of the most expensive yearling sales in the world. One year I watch the shake of Dubai spend 10 million $$ in three days on one year old thoroughbreds that had never even been saddled!!  Like the Willys, which ever way you pronounce it, it is unique. 

[rocketraider]

6 hours ago, SC38DLS said:

the shake of Dubai 

Was that Sheik Yerbouti?

[TAKerry]

7 hours ago, SC38DLS said:

Kentuckians pronounce Versailles as

Ver-sales because it rhymes with horse sales and the track there, Keenland is on the edge of Lexington and Versailles, has some of the most expensive yearling sales in the world. One year I watch the shake of Dubai spend 10 million $$ in three days on one year old thoroughbreds that had never even been saddled!!  Like the Willys, which ever way you pronounce it, it is unique. 

I was told when I was there that the guys from Saudi were the only ones with permission to land a jumbo jet at the airport across from the race track.

[SC38dls]

The Saudi’s supposedly paid for the runway extension. They would land 2 747’s and park them near the main road across from Keeneland. They were also the first planes in the air after 911 as the govt wanted to get them out of the USA. 
Sorry for the hijack. 

[wayne sheldon]

11 hours ago, SC38DLS said:

Sorry for the hijack. 

 

Careful. Speaking of airplanes, terrorist attacks, and hijack all in a couple short sentences!

 

No telling where this thread may get flagged?

 

Now, THAT gives me the Willies!

Edited April 27, 2021 by wayne sheldon
I hate leaving typos! (see edit history)

[58L-Y8]

My WWII veteran father always pronounced it "Wil-leez-Jeep" which I imagine was common among for GI's, perhaps the consistency of "-eez" and "-eep" rolled off the tongue more naturally.