donkey, monkey, honky

[Beverly Flanigan]

I've heard 'donkey' with a schwa from time to time in Ohio but haven't
pinned it down to subregion yet.  The other day an African American
announcer on the local NPR affiliate used it with ref. to a coffee shop
called "Donkey Cafe" (don't ask me why).

At 10:55 PM 11/15/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>         For me (Southmost Texas), 1 & 3 rhyme with open "o" (transcribed
>dictionary-wise as \aw\ by some listers), while 2 has schwa (I don't do
>wedge -- that's a British pronunciation). However, donkey with a schwa is
>common in at least parts of Ohio (and used to be in Brooklyn).
>
>         Since honky allegedly came from Bohunk,
>Jim Landau's pronunciation of it with a schwa makes good sense. I could
>never figure out how one got from Bohunk to honkey, when the latter had
>the vowel of "honk". Schwa must have been the original vowel, and the
>pronuciation was influenced by false (folk) association with "honk"
>(unless the regional pronunciation of Bohunk is with an open "o").
>
>         Rudy
>
>(Footnote to another thread: on the campus of the University of Texas
>(Austin), there is a statue of Jefferson Davis, President of the
>Confederate States of America, standing with a copy of the US constitution
>open in one hand. The implications are clear.)