Choral vs. coral

[Paul Johnston]

It isn't in modern Michigan, N Illinois or New Jersey either, but
according to the older dialect surveys, it WAS a general Northern
feature and one of the main North/Midland differences.  Like "dutch
cheese" for "cottage cheese", it seems to have gone the way of the
"whippletree" and disappeared in most dialects.  Maybe Keillor's
being conservative.  There's no documentation that I know of saying
when NORTH and FORCE merge in the North, but it's got to be a
difference in most areas between people born in the 1860's and the
turn of the twentieth century.

Paul Johnston
On Jun 20, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Choral vs. coral
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Cf. the old "hoarse/horse" split--still in New England?  Not generally
> elsewhere, as far as I know; but Garrison Keillor has it, for some
> strange
> reason (Minnesota-born and bred, though I've never heard other fellow
> Minnesotans have it).
>
> Beverly
>
> At 09:15 AM 6/20/2006, you wrote:
>> Yes, that is a possibility, Mark. Thank you for your suggestion.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> On 6/20/06, Mark A. Mandel <mamandel at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Choral vs. coral
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----------
>>>
>>> Wilson inquires:
>>>>>>
>>>
>>> Wasn't there once a time when these two words differed in
>>> pronunciation as well as in spelling, to wit: choral [kor at l] as in
>>> singing vs. [kOr at l] as in reef? Nowadays, they both appear to be
>>> pronounced [kor at l].
>>>
>>> <<<
>>>
>>> I'm sure this is a regional difference. My dialect doesn't
>>> distinguish /or/
>>> from /Or/. Have you moved from a distinguishing region to a
>>> merging one?
>>>
>>> m a m
>>>
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>>
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