Variable LABOV

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:45 AM -0400 4/1/09, Alice Faber wrote:
>RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>Hear "Labov" pronounced with a final schwa + /f/   (varying with open-o +
>>/f/) at
>>
>>http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Labov&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
>>
>>and
>>
>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68VaOuY6ew&feature=related
>>
>>Interesting that the seasoned TV announcer apparently did not learn to
>>pronounce the name as ending in [-ov], even in an interview with
>>the man himself.
>>Somebody else found it "unnatural" (or maybe it is better to say "intuitively
>>wrong")
>>
>
>As someone whose first grade teacher called "Farber" rather than "Faber"
>for the entire school year, this doesn't surprise me in the least.
>
>--

And you couldn't convince her that the R (the first, invisible one) was silent?

LH

>==============================================================================
>Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
>Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
>New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org