Settle a stupid bet... "Will-eez" or "Will-iss"?

Will-iss

 

I'll buy the beer....How about a Coors?........When I lived in Kansas, EVERYBODY pronounced it Kurz

 

in the land of cab trucks and 68 camaros, when you say willys you mean jeep.
most of these chuckleheads have never heard willys made any other vehicles.
and half believe they are powered by fords.

 

That's funny... I always pronounced it "cold horse piss"

 

Willys-Overland has always and only been in my hometown -- Toledo Ohio. Everybody in town has worked there at some time in their life (mine was 1965-1970, when it was Kaiser, then just plain Jeep right before AMC took over).

And everybody, including John North Willys himself, never questioned that the cars were "Willeez Jeeps", "Willeez Aero-Aces", and the like.

Our hometown paper recently ran a retrospective series on the history of the Overland/Willys / Kaiser / AMC / Chrysler / DaimlerChrysler, and included the fact that John North Willys always pronounced his OWN name as "Willis". He apparently would rather sell cars than enforce correct interpretation of his heritage. Sort of like Dr. Por-sha living with half his American customers thinking the drive a Porsh.

I think the bet goes to the side saying the cars were Willeezes, since even Mr. Williss agreed.

 

Will-ease?

 

That right there tells me that the restorer mentality is running rampant in the Williss crowd... trying to be "correct" and all.

Who do you guys think is perpetuating the "Williss" pronunciation?

Sam.

 

Ever see that episode of Saturday Night Live where the guy is in a job interview with the president of Asswipe Corporation? He says "I think I would be a real asset to the Asswipe Corporation," and "I really look forward to working with you, Mr. Asswipe." Then the interviewer says, "it's pronounced 'Azz-WEE-pay."

 

I thought that was a commercial , with Mr. Dumas, and the guy was Calling him Mr. Dumbass.

BTW I've never heard it any other way than "will-eez". I don't care how Mr. Willis wanted. Who the hell ever heard of a "Will-iss" gasser. Maybe those are the teal Pro-Street versions.


Drew

 

yeah, what he said

 

It's a vast right wing conspiracy. Texans say Willis, and will continue to do so...















..since that's the right way. Never met a Willys restorer, but I have seen a handful of wicked fast aerocoupes at the 1/8mi drag strips we have around here. Those guys all call their '33s and '40-41s "willis-es" even if they're nearly unrecognizable and are made out of fiberglass.

 

BINGO!
Here are ads from the same site the announcer pronounces it "iss."
http://www.mightymo.org/willys_sound_bites.htm

Unless the ad agency or the guy-with-the-voice have it wrong it's probably "iss."

That was new to me, too, when I ran across it several months ago.
I will probably still say eez, but occasionally correct myself and pass on that bit of trivia.

.

 

No -- actually he said "Show me the money".

 

Alright, already. Turn on your speaker and click to hear it straight from the Willys' mouth.

 

Now, don't go getting phonetical on us poor, old country boys. I'm with Longroof64. You make it up to Scottsdale and let him buy you a beer and I'll drive over from Mesa and buy you one, too. Maybe November when Good Guys has their get together in Scottsdale?

Tell DrJ that those "gow-jobs" were "souped up" and they put Frontenac heads on those "T"'s and Winfield carbs, and cams. No, I'm not THAT old.

My, my, my this thread has been entertaining for a Monday afternoon. Isn't English wonderful?

Phil, aka AZAV8

 

Well if you are going to change the rules after 40 years of hot rodding, kiss my ass! I have had a 39, 40 and 53 Willys. I never owned, lusted after or driven a Willis and I never will.

Ohio George ina 33 Wllis...yeah right.

 

Hey, I'm Hukt on fonix.

 

Word up.

 

And then some say "word" but I like the old rap version "WERD"

 

The phone number for Hooked on Phonics is "1-800 A B C D E F G"
If they can't read, how do they call?

I'm from Toledo too. I've always heard them called "Will-eez", but I have heard the Jeep plant referred to as the "Williss-Overland" plant. Just seems to roll off the tongue better.

The road in Toledo is spoken about as "Willeez", --you don't turn on "williss"

But what I want to know is how do you pronounce it where there are a bunch of them together? Willysis...Willyses...Willii...

-Brad

 

You say toe-may-toe I say toe-mah-toe - let's call the whole thing off.

 

Leave me out of it.......Will iiiiiiis

 

IT IS WILL EEZE. That is all there is to it. If we wasted time trying to say every single word as it was 'correctly' pronounced we would not have a life. You would go to school until you were 35 so you could learn them all. The english language is always changing. Someday people will think that it is funny that "my friend and I" was correct grammar. The name of something is just a noise that you make to associate with an object. So If everyone around you says Willis then fine, say it that way, but to me it is Willys as in will ease. I have NEVER heard 'Willis' except as a joke. So would you say Texas or Tay hoss? Cube-a or koo bah? Almost all words are other words that were mispronounced and became a new word. Keep in mind that Chevy even calls their car an Impal-ah not an Impaul-ah as EVERYONE I know says it. I say you are both equally correct and that you should go in halves on a case. I vote for kokanee.

 

Do ya think Vic Edelbrock gives a shit that half of all rodders mispronounce his name as Eldabrock? Not as long as they buy his stuff. Point being? It's pointless to care.

 

Depends on whether you have a Chass-eee or chass-isss.

 

Yeah, well, what about Weiand? Whee-un, Why-un or Way-un? Iss-skenderian or Eye-skenderian? Do you fab up flayn-ges or flahn-ges?

This thread is funny. Half the posts have misspelled words, but our big old brains can figure out the meaning anyway. ccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. We r smrt...

 

Around 1950, I mentioned the name Willys to my folks, who told me that the correct pronunciation was Willis. They were very sharp in the use of language, and they had grown up when the make of car was as common as a DeSoto or a Hudson, so I've always been pretty sure they were right.

On the other hand, they were both from St. Louis, and had a few regionalisms in their vocabularies, so maybe St. Louisans and Texans used the same source.

In the meantime, when Willys were becoming plentiful at the drags, every other kid I knew referred to them as Willies.

So, my version: Willis is correct, but Willies is the current usage. And I'm stickin' to it.

Waitress, a round of beers for my friends!

 

I don't think you're gonna provoke much of a debate about the Weiand pronunciation, seeing as they used to cast the correct pronunciation into their intake manifolds and all.

 

How 'bout Tudor? Lots of folks here pronouce it like it was a period of English history. I think it's just Henry spelling, as in Ford two door.

 

My dad always said it "Will-iss", corrected me when I found out what the cowl I'm butchering was and proudly proclaimed it was a "Will-eez"....