hanger

[Beverly Flanigan]

No, I didn't think New Yorkers would say [haengg at r], and Dave Bergdahl
seems to agree; but that's why the pronunciation puzzled me.  Thanks for
the note on British pronunciation.
As Dennis notes, children do indeed say [fIng at r], and I think the gist of
the (CHILDES?] discussion was whether L2 adults do the same,
overgeneralizing from [sIng at r].  However, the opposite generalization also
occurs, and probably moreso, as he notes.
(BTW, I goofed on calling the two homophones rather than minimal pairs--MY
blooper!)


At 07:39 PM 7/22/99 -0700, you wrote:
>I think I noticed my father (from London) saying the word this way, so I
>looked it up in the Concise OED.
>
>"hangar (-ngg-), n. Shed for housing aeroplane etc. [F, = shed for carriages
>etc., etym. dub.]"
>
>The French pronunciation is [a~ga:r] (Heath).
>
>Were you implying that the (-ngg-) pronunciation is normal in New York for
>"hangEr"?
>
>There might even be a distinction for some between "[clothes] hanger" and
>"hanger" 'person (or baseball pitch) that hangs'.
>
>But surely, for most Americans, "hanger" = "hanger" = "hangar".
>
>DEJ
>
>>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: hanger
>>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 15:12:28 -0400
>>
>>I heard another new pronunciation (to me) on NPR yesterday:  A newswoman
>>referred to a plane kept in a [haeNGg at r] at Cape Cod.  I'm aware of [NGg]
>>use in "Long Island," of course, but she didn't sound like a New Yorker.
>>(Weren't we talking about homophonic 'finger/singer' on this list recently
>>too, or was that the Childes list?)  I wonder in this case if the word
>>usage (for plane storage) might have been new to the newswoman and she
>>thought it must be [NGg]?  I hear a lot of bloopers on NPR lately....
>>
>
>
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