hawk/hock

[Mark A Mandel]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2002, Fritz Juengling wrote:

#Perhaps this is an isogloss that separates Oregon from Washington (I would be
#very surprised, though), because I pronounce 'hock' and 'hawk' with all their
#meanings exactly the same and I cannot ever recall anyone distinguishing
#them--that would have struck a chord right off.

Would it? If you are a conflater, I would not expect you to hear the
difference in non-conflating speech as clearly and automatically as you
hear differences that are distinctive to you, such as /ae/ vs. /E/.

-- Mark M.