ERR

[Mark A. Mandel]

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> writes:

>>>>>
At 3:01 PM -0500 2/9/01, Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> writes:
>>>>>>
>This, just arrived on a jokes list, suggests that the "ur"
>pronunciation is still dominant.  The first two, at least, don't work
>on "air", and it's significant that none of them require the "air"
>version.
><<<<<
>
>The most one can deduce from this datum is that the person who posted the
>joke to the jokes list probably had the vocalic-R pronunciation.

I demur.  The puns are based on rhymes with e.g. "purr", not
"pear"/"pair".  Granted, the evidence isn't definitive, but it is
suggestive.
<<<<<

Errr.... 're we talking at cross purposes? By "vocalic-R" I mean the vowel
in "purr" (all right, and "demUR"), approx IPA rhotacized [3].

-- Mark