the psychology of Gray/Grey

[Peter A. McGraw]

The best example I ever heard of a similar phenomenon was on a music
program on NPR co-hosted by the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony (I
think that's the orchestra--and I can't remember the conductor's name, but
I think it starts with Z).  Speaking of how professional violinists refer
to their instrument as a "fiddle," and also discussing the difference in
style between country fiddling and classical violin playing, he recalled
once asking a class what they saw as the difference between a violin and a
fiddle.  One student answered: "A violin has strings; a fiddle has strangs."

--On Mon, Oct 16, 2000 1:30 PM +0800 Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

> Every year I teach Dialects, at least one student and
> usually more swears that a cheap one is a [veys] but an expensive one
> is a [va:z].  (I broke your veys, but you broke my va:z.)  I tend to
> agree--a "beautiful Ming veyx" really seems wrong.



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu