The Steel Guitar Forum

Posted: **9 May 2003 4:04 am**

What is the accepted pronunciation of "copedant"?

Posted: **9 May 2003 4:09 am**

I use (and hear)
co (rymes with row)
pen (rymes with Ben)
dant (rymes with rant).

Posted: **9 May 2003 4:17 am**

actually, now that I think of it, I've seen it as "copedant" as well as "copedent." Which is correct? Or is as variable as it's meaning?

Posted: **9 May 2003 5:01 am**

in Winnie Winston'sbook it is written as Copedant
like Harry Coe (stringbean in French)
Pee (swee pee)
Dent (like on your car)
------------------
Steel what?

[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 09 May 2003 at 06:47 AM.][This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 09 May 2003 at 06:48 AM.]

Posted: **9 May 2003 5:06 am**

pen (rymes with Ben)

There's no "pen" in copedant. The way I've always heard it pronounced is with the accent on the second syllable and "pe" pronounced with a long 'e'.

As I recall, Tom Bradshaw originally coined the word and should be the one to provide the correct pronunciation.

Posted: **9 May 2003 5:43 am**

dat ain't da way I sez it, eh?

You're correct about Tom, he get's the final word. I'll ask him.

Posted: **9 May 2003 5:59 am**

It's pronounced copedant. There, I hope that settles it once and for all.

Posted: **9 May 2003 6:38 am**

Tom Bradshaw told me he takes credit for coining the term.

He said it is Chord Pedal Arrangment.
Co Ped Ent, I would say.

In french it might be Coo Pa Dan ..
which might almost be obscene

but not co de pend ant

Your mileage may vary considerably.
I guess I should go peedal my bike awhile[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 09 May 2003 at 07:45 AM.]

Posted: **9 May 2003 6:39 am**

Guys
It's an acronym for
ChOrd
PEDal
arrangemENT

The word is COPEDENT (not copedant, not copendent, not codependent)

And, as stated earlier, it's pronounced
co-PEE-dent
(according to Bradshaw)

(AND, David, I's scary how great minds can run in the same gutter)
------------------
Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 09 May 2003 at 07:42 AM.]

Posted: **9 May 2003 6:48 am**

Over hear they call'm " les gros tetes" LOL.
That translates literally to fatheads,
but means big minds. There's a bla, bla, bla, TV show called that here.
I also keep thinking of Our Distended Family.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 09 May 2003 at 07:49 AM.]

Posted: **9 May 2003 8:32 am**

Larry Bell,

1000% mega dittos.

In reading this post I am reminded of such pronunciations as:

1. Ernest Tubbs

2. Hal Ruggs

3. Miam "ah"

4. Cincinat "ah"

5. Missour "ah"

6. Illah "noise"

7. Demoinz

8. Spocaine

9. Hiwaryan

10. Grand OLD OPRAH

11. Satistics

12. Alooneemum

13. Git' TAR

14. Maysh the pedals

15. Julian Thorpe

16. Irregardless*

17. Whurr

18. Lovun

19. Cain't

20. Copendant

21. Copendent

22. Pacific (specific)

23. Uh HI ah (Ohio)

24. Leema (Lie mah, Ohio)

25. Chicargo

26. Dint, coont, shunt; or didant coodunt and shuudunt for didnt, couldnt and shouldnt.

27. "Tempered tuning" meaning Just Intonation.

28. Heighth (it IS Hite)

29. "an" for "a" such as "an" history file. THE most missused adjective of all in the media by seasoned news commentators; who should KNOW better.

30. Dale Mullen

as in:

31. Mullen

32. "you know" (when we do NOT know

Reason being, he has said so many "you knows" he hasn't told us anything yet.

Have fun and God bless you all,

carl

* No such word[This message was edited by C Dixon on 09 May 2003 at 09:34 AM.]

Posted: **9 May 2003 10:05 am**

Larry, you are quite right. I toyed with several acronyms before coming up with "co-pee-dent." Frankly, I didn't like this word, but everything else I coined seemed even worse. I do wish I had spelled it with bars above the o and e, signifying a long "o" and long "e" sound in its pronunciation. Not doing so led many to mispronounce the word, as is the case that appears to have prompted this Forum posting.

As I wrote many times about why I came up with this word, I simply got tired of using "set-up" to describe a player's basic tuning and the changes in that tuning when engaging pedals and knee levers. I wanted the pedal steel guitar to have nomenclature, by having identifying words and terms dedicated to it alone. Back then, as is now, "set-ups" are mixers sold by bartenders to customers who supplied their own alcohol if they wished to drink in bars in semi-dry States.

I should send this word to the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary. Perhaps it could become an official word in the English language, since it has become quite common in the lexicon of pedal steel players. …Tom

Posted: **9 May 2003 12:13 pm**

I guess the word of authority has been spoken. Thanks for all the relpies!

Lawrence

Posted: **10 May 2003 5:26 pm**

Ditto for me, Tom. I didn't like the word either.

But now you are famous for it and stuck with it. So there.

What is your "Pedal Setup"?......al

Posted: **11 May 2003 4:21 am**

Tom,
(You wrote: I toyed with several acronyms before coming up with "co-pee-dent." )
Some confusion may be due to the fact that in the Winston-Keith book, it is spelled "copedant". You seemed to say it is "copedent". Is that the case? (It certainly makes sense that way!)
chas
PS After rereading Larry's post and your response again, I guess it definitely is
"copedent". Just wanted to be absolutely certain...[This message was edited by Chas Friedman on 11 May 2003 at 06:49 AM.]

Posted: **11 May 2003 8:23 am**

Chas: There was never an "a" in the spelling of copedent. Long before the Winston/Keith book was written, Winnie and I were friends. We often talked on the phone (he lived in Pennsylvania, I in California). As far back as the early '70s I had been using that word on the album jackets and in the newsletters of my old Steel Guitar Record Club. All I can say is that it was misspelled. I observed that when I read his book, but it was too late; the book was printed.

Al, you old friend and out-of-work commedian, here is my "set-up":

Basic tuning: On the Rocks
A Pedal: With tonic water
B Pedal: Dash of vermouth
C Pedal: Juice of one lime
D Lever: Water back
E Lever: Ginger ale
F Lever: Drop of grenadine
G Lever: Club soda
V (vertical): Dash of pernod

Strain and stir 3 hours a day to become an killer player.

Epilog: Jeff Newman is the person who gave the alphabetical designations to the pedals and knee levers. I came up with the LKL, RKR, etc. for the knee lever directions, because my typewriter didn't have a key for the arrows that were being used to show the travel directions and placements of the knee levers of everyone's "set-ups." …Tom

Posted: **11 May 2003 10:36 am**

Correct pronunciation, Set-up.

Posted: **11 May 2003 10:54 am**

The noises in my head just keep getting louder!

Posted: **11 May 2003 12:08 pm**

Tom,
Thanks for the reply!
chas

Posted: **11 May 2003 4:34 pm**

Tom- with all due respect, that pronunciation makes so little sense that I can't bring myself to utter it. If it's a made-up word, why not keep it internally consistent?

Lack of parallel structure is one of my pet pevs....

Posted: **11 May 2003 5:06 pm**

Joey:
Ya does a pretty nice job of doin' a Newfie accent eh.

Posted: **12 May 2003 10:28 am**

Hi Greg: No problem with calling you basic tuning and all the pedals and knee lever changes a "set-up" or anything else you choose to. I never tried to force the word on anyone.

Hi Steve: No problem in not uttering the word. It has been said that the ugliest word every coined was "mange." I suspect that if a rose were called mange, it would smell just as sweet. Ooops. I'm mixing metaphors of the bard.

Is any of this is all that important? I think it is time that everyone just sat down behind their steels and played whatever "set-up" is on it until the music was sweeter than any batch of coined words could ever describe.

...Tom

Posted: **12 May 2003 10:50 am**

Hey, I just didn't want to sound dumb if it ever came up in conversation. Wouldn't want to make some dinner party faux pas by saying it wrong.

You know how often these things come up.

[This message was edited by Lawrence Lupkin on 12 May 2003 at 11:51 AM.]

Posted: **12 May 2003 12:31 pm**

I submitted the word to Says You, that word game show on public radio, for use in one of their bluffing rounds (which are like the game "fictionary"; one team mixes the real definition of an obscure word in with two fake ones, and the other team has to guess which is the correct definition.)

It would be interesting to hear what fake definitions they come up with.

Posted: **12 May 2003 4:56 pm**

Co'pah dent.

Is that it Tom?