hoss

[Millie Webb]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2002 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: hoss


> Me too.  I have a minimal pair between "hoss" [h)s, open o] (as in
> the Bonanza/Keith Jackson) and "Hos" [has] (as in the abbreviation
> for Jeff Hostetler, the backup quarterback who led the N. Y. Giants
> to victory in the 1991 Super Bowl).  I know, however, that the
> hypocoristic was created by someone who pronounced them as homonyms
> (with the open o vowel I use in the former), and probably pronounced
> "Hostetler" with an open o as well.
>
> larry

"hoss" is open 'o' for me also, but it does not sound odd as [a] either.  I
do find it interesting that you would call pronouncing Hostetler (a very
common Amish Mennonite name) with an open 'o' hypercorrective.  I have heard
it both ways (by people with the name themselves, and by others) in several
different Old Order Districts in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
If there is any pattern to open 'o' or [a] in Hostetler, it would be
generational, I think--with older folks over sixty being much more likely to
pronounce it with open 'o'.  Names are names, in my experience.  Which way
they are pronounced and spelled is difficult (at best) to label "correct" or
"incorrect".  Then again, we discussed this a bit earlier.  Sorry if I sound
repetitive.  -- Millie