"Blawg"

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:04 AM -0500 12/30/07, Dennis Preston wrote:
>us open-o /a/ distinguishers have a very uneven assignment of the
>phonemes to different words, especially before /g/.  In my case,
>which I bet is not very different from David's, my earliest learned o
>+ /g/ words are all open-o (hog, frog, log, dog, etc...); my later
>learned words (cog, togs, etc...) are either /a/ or variable (e.g.,
>smog). I think I would assign /a/ to "blog," although I ain't much
>for introspection in such matters.
>
>dInIs

We effete easterners (or me, anyway) also distinguish two
collections, and frequency/early acquisition are relevant variables
for us too, but playing out in a rather imbalanced way.  I have /dOg/
with open-o and...that's it.  The other -ogs all have /a/.  So not
only doesn't "blog" rhyme with "dog", but nothing else does either!?
Did I realize this?

Actually there might be local Indian names in New England whose last
syllable end in things like -paug that would rhyme with "dog".  Or if
I were pronouncing PAUG [the acronym for the Portland Access Users
Group, the Professional Auto-CAD Users Group, or the Philadelphia
Auto-CAD Users Group] or PAWG [Pissed Americans With Guns] that would
as well.  For -og words, though, "dog" stands alone, it appears.
Anyone else share this weird idiolect?  Have we already discussed
this?

LH



>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
>>Subject:      Re: "Blawg"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>
>>>  How will "dawg"-sayin' folk distinguish "blawg" from "blog" in speech?
>>>  By contex', I reckon.
>>
>>Actually, my cot-caught-distinguishin' self pronounces blog with an
>>open-o, probably out of analogy with log, which has an open-o for me.
>>
>>(Hence my weakly-joked wonderment at why it was spelled blawg, not blog
>>in my earlier post. I realized right after i sent it that that was a
>>pretty opaque comment.)
>>
>>--
>>David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
>>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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