Kregg vs. Craig

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Yes, Matt, I liike historical anecdotes better than intuitions. But
>I am pretty sure that lax "Craig" for me is learned. When I was a
>young flatland hillbilly (from Lousville), I had the temerity to
>appear in some Shakespearean productions. Starting at the bottom of
>course, I began my way up by appearing as a murderer in the Scottish
>play. One of Macduff's children (whom I was about to send to his
>maker) refers to me as a "shag-haired villain," and I was to exclaim
>"What! You egg!" On my first reading, I used my local tense vowel
>(as I also did in "leg" and other such items). I was advised to
>relax.

dInIs

>




>Yeah, I think Craig might be lexically exceptional. I'm pretty sure
>I have a tense vowel in Haig, so it's homophonous with Hague. Still,
>I rarely put much stock in my linguistic intuitions and probably
>even less so when dealing with unusual words like these.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
>Sent:   Fri 7/19/2002 6:36 PM
>To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Cc:
>Subject:             Re: Kregg vs. Craig
>
>
>In the context I brought up (the murderee whose name was Craig as in
>[krEg]) this may be a factor, as his full name was Gregory Craig.
>For me, it would still and evermore be tense in the latter.  Would
>you distinguish Haig (as in the General who would be "in charge here"
>after Reagan was shot) from the Hague?  I suppose the spelling may be
>a factor for me--I'd distinguish an orthographic Pague/Paig as tense
>(without ever having heard them pronounced) from the lax Peg.
>
>L

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736