wheel-barrel

[Beverly Flanigan]

Gee, I don't know--that's way back in my past!  I've never heard the
"borrow" pronunciation--interesting.

At 08:58 AM 8/14/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>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 ************************