hawk/hock

[Dennis R. Preston]

Surely not. The /a/ of "warm" is massively influenced by the
preceding /w/. That the /a/ of "harm" would be more like it (than
that of "hot") is phonetically unlikely. The following /r/ may also
impose features on /a/ which make it sound a bit like those preceded
by /w/.

dInIs  (a "warsh" Louisville speaker with with a /a/ in /warsh/ like
the /a/ in /warm/)

>In a message dated 7/18/02 11:41:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM writes:
>
>>   [You didn't mention
>>   "warsh" (for "wash"), which I had until I consciously suppressed it
>>   sometime in my teens.  That /ar/ is a little more like "warm" than "arm."]
>
>
>Yes, I still say /warsh/ and /warshingt'n/.  My parents were born and raised
>in Louisville, Ky.  My grandparents are from Louisville, New York, and
>Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary).
>
>I think you are right about my /ar/, and specifically the /ar/ or "harsh", as
>being more like "warm" than "arm".  As best I can tell (I have NO training in
>phonetics), my /ar/ in "arm" is much, uh, backer than my /ar/ in "harsh".
>But that still leaves the question of why, unlike the M-W 10th Collegiate, I
>pronounce "mop" and "mar" with noticeably different vowels.  If I talk about
>the Battle of the Marne (in France), I say /mahrn/, but if I mar the finish
>on my desk, it is definitely /mawr/, close if not identical to my /aw/ of
>"warm".
>
>       Still confused,
>
>       Jim Landau

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736