My limericks

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Robert Orr wrote:

> "Let's all join the chorus "
> "For our fabled Horace"
> how many people rhyme "chorus" and "Horace"?

Too many, in my book.

Where I come from (N'York, originally), "Horace" has "short o" as in 
"not," which sounds the same as "a" in "father" (British speakers and 
New Englanders will disagree). But many Americans, especially south of 
here, lengthen stressed vowels before intervocalic /r/:

borrow, coronary, Dorothy, florist, Florida, foreign, horrible, horror, 
majority, minority, moral, Norris, orange, origin, porridge, sorry, 
torrent, torrid, etc.

I have /a/ as in "father" in all of these.

I do have "long o" in some words (boring, glorious, Taurid), so for me 
these speakers are neutralizing a contrast. Their pronunciation of 
"horrible" sounds to me like "whorable." (sorry!)

Many of these speakers also lengthen other "short" vowels before 
intervocalic /r/ and in some other positions. Thus, "I maried mary Mary 
and we all had a Mary Christmas." For me, merry/marry/Mary have three 
distinct vowels. Compare also "mirror" pronounced as "meerer," "error" 
as "airer" ("to air is human"), etc. Some even say things like 
"emediately," but that might be under the influence of the following 
/i/. Here, too, these speakers are neutralizing what I hear as a contrast.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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