"Blawg"

[Dennis Preston]

Fog and smog are good examples of my early-vesus-late suggestion. Fog
is always open-o for me, and I knew the word when I was a kid. I
still don't know how to pronounce 'smog,' which I learned much later
(Course They wadn't none around Louisivlle.)

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
>Subject:      Re: "Blawg"
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>
>Some of us pronounce the word describing a particularly misty
>atmospheric condition to rhyme with dog, whether or not it comes
>on little cat feet.
>(the other) doug
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>
>At 12/30/2007 11:21 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>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?
>
>I too, another effete easterner, share this -- but I don't think it's
>weird.  (As a freshman at Columbia, I had to submit to a speaking
>test, which I passed except for a caution about my "ng"s -- too "g"ey.)
>
>There is Ponkapoag (Pond, Golf Course) south of Boston, misspelled
>also on the Web as "Ponkapaug".  But -- although I don't hear it said
>much these days; perhaps someone can phone the golf course -- the
>memories of my youth say it's like "log", not "dog".
>
>Joel
>
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--
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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