hypocoristics (Was: hoss)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:22 AM -0500 8/9/02, Millie Webb wrote:
>----- 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 didn't, and wouldn't.  Look again, please.  I called "Hos" a
hypocoristic (i.e. a short, pet name) for "Hostetler".

--larry

>  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