"open o" loss

[David Bergdahl]

What about the farmer/former reversal /Or/ : /ar/... or is Athens, GA too
sophisticated for that?
-db

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "open o" loss
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:43 AM -0400 4/24/08, Charles Doyle wrote:
> >"Four" would ordinarily have /o/ or /ow/; "for" would have the open
> >o. (The parallel distinction often mentioned in the textbooks is
> >"hoarse" vs. "horse.")
> >
>
> Yes, but for (*4) me the pun is extremely forced even though I merge
> "horse" and "hoarse".  The preposition "for", unless it's
> contrastively stressed ("Chris is FOR Obama, not aGAINST him"), has
> an extremely bleached out schwaish vowel (if it's a vowel at all, as
> opposed to a syllabic liquid), rather than the open- or closed-o of
> "four".  It's hard for me to tell which vowel I have in the latter
> (or in "horse" and "hoarse") because of the r-coloring.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >---- Original message ----
> >>Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:11:36 -0400
> >>From: Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> >>
> >>What vowels would the local dialect normally have?
> >>
> >>Herb
> >>
> >>On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 8:14 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>   Disregarding the traditional dialect of the local area, the
> >>>University of Georgia's gymnastics team is sporting the slogan
> >>>"Back 4 more" as it enters the NCAA meet this weekend, hoping to
> >>>win its fourth consecutive national championship.
> >>>
> >>>   (The pun--which was not at first obvious to me--merges "four" and
> "for.")
> >>>
> >>>   --Charlie
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