"awe" phoneme has disappeared

[Tom Zurinskas]

Not a joke.  Jay Leno says "ah-some" instead of "awesome."  He's from Mass but now lives in LA.
 
The voices of thefreedictionary.com say
USA - ahsome  ~aasum
UK - ohsome  ~oesum
speaker icon  awesome  ~ausum
 
Standardization would be a good thing.  Where would we be without it.  

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk


 
 



 

> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:39:19 -0500
> From: thegonch at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: "awe" phoneme has disappeared
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "awe" phoneme has disappeared
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> You mean like the joke?
> 
> http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~choh/german.htm
> 
> DanG
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 4:50 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> > Subject: Re: "awe" phoneme has disappeared
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Jan 30, 2012, at 1:20 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >
> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
> >>>
> >>> The answer is minimal pair drills in preschool to 6th grade. This merge
> >>> must be stopped! If not, America might as well end up as the 11th province. ;)
> >>
> >> You laugh, but have you ever watched Nick Jr. for any length of time?
> >> Because of all the Canadian content (Dino Dan, Little Bear, Franklin,
> >> Max & Ruby), you can hear the Canadian Shift an awful lawt. Where's
> >> the legislation to save our kids' vowels from this northern menace?
> >>
> >> --bgz
> >
> > I think we should throw anyone who produces excess phonemes in jail. Merge until we have only five vowels and then spelling will be simpler.
> >
> > Benjamin Barrett
> > Seattle, WA
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
                                          
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