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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I was in Charleston, SC, last
week, a friend of mine who is a researcher and an author but not a linguist
asked me to help make some sense out of the term "plough mud,"
pronounced and sometimes spelled "pluff mud." You can do a Google
search if you want to see more about how the term is used. This term seems to
be local to Charleston.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Plough mud is dark brown
silty mud that reportedly can be used as fertilizer. I was asked whether
perhaps "plough" (plow) was pronounced a couple hundred years ago
with an /f/ sound at the end, rhyming with English "rough." I said
that I didn't know, but I would try to find out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>What we do know is that
"plough mud" and "pluff mud" refer to the same thing, and
that the latter spelling is more representative of its pronunciation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>What we don't know is if this
term really had anything to do with plowing. That could be a folk etymology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Another thing I don't know is
whether "plough" was ever pronounced, in the past, perhaps
dialectally, like "pluff." It is a reasonable guess, based on analogy
with "rough," but a reasonable guess isn't good enough. In fact, the
little bit of etymological research I have done has not shown that to be a
pronunciation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Does anyone reading this know
the answer? Or else, does anybody know how to find out the answer?<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>-- David<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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