hawk/hock

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:36 AM -0400 7/12/02, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>ahahahahahahah, larry, how bout horse-hoarse?
>
>dInIs

Got me there.  I guess that's down below the Mary/merry/marry line.

L

>
>>At 10:28 AM -0700 7/11/02, A. Maberry wrote:
>>>On Thu, 11 Jul 2002, Anne Gilbert wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  INteresting.  I've *always* pronounced "hock" and "hawk"(the
>>>>bird, at least)
>>>>  differently.  Maybe other parts of the country are different from the
>>>>  Pacific Northwest in this respect?
>>>>  Anne G
>>>
>>>Maybe so. For me, "hawk" (the bird) and "hawk" (one's wares) are
>>>homophones.
>>>"Hock" as in "hock shop" and "ham hock" are also homophonous, but not with
>>>"hawk".
>>>
>>Ditto on both counts from this New Yorker, but of course we preserve
>>all our orthographically maintained vowel distinctions, down to the
>>Mary/merry/marry ones.
>>
>>Larry