wheel-barrel

[Peter A. McGraw]

What?  You mean they don't have barrow wights anymore?!

Seriously, though, I wonder if the pronunciation "wheel borrow" can also be
attributed to the rarity of "barrow" in any other context.

Peter Mc.

--On Wednesday, August 13, 2003 2:46 PM -0400 Beverly Flanigan
<flanigan at OHIOU.EDU> wrote:

> Since "barrow" is no longer a common word except in this compound, I
> suspect /l/-liaisers are spelling the word the way they pronounce it (the
> opposite of spelling pronunciations like "often").  Or, more generally,
> people may have come to think the word in the compound is really
> "barrel."



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