WHEEL.bair.uh? (was "wheel barrels?")

[Thomas Paikeday]

1. I don't think ease of pronunciation has anything to do with the
barrow/barrel confusion; it may have more to do with how the words are heard
spoken. Also, whereas "barrel" is heard as "barrow" by me and lots of
English users from my linguistic background (no questions allowed about this
murky issue please!) the reverse doesn't seem possible, i.e, "barrow" is not
heard as "barrel."

2. Incidentally, the variant pronunciation of "barrow" as (BAIR.uh, in my
transcription) given in dictionaries compiled in the mid-1900's (Kenyon &
Knott, 1953, probably influenced by Webster's Third, 1961) -- how common is
it in current North American English? Does everyone say a compound word such
as "wheel barrow" as (WHEEL.bair.oh) all the time or, esp. in rapid
conversational style, lapse into (WHEEL.bair.uh)?

TOM

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: wheel barrels?


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: wheel barrels?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> At 10:41 AM -0400 8/11/04, Thomas Paikeday wrote:
> >Bethany,
> >
> >FWIW, here is my explanation of why you hear "wheel barrow" as "wheel
> >barrel":
> >
> >The "l" sound in that position is rounded, so is "w". The "-ow"/"-el"
> >confusion, I believe, is borne out in similar phonetic contexts including
> >"-al", "-il", "-ol", -"ul", and "-yl" if someone will supply examples in
> >support of or against this claim by a non-phonetician.
> >
> >TOM PAIKEDAY
> >www.paikeday.net
>
> Tom, I'm not sure I buy this, however persuasive the phonetic
argumentation.
>
> My wife purchased a wheelbarrow earlier this summer and since then
> has referred to it consistently as a wheelbarrel.  (This surprised me
> because she's from Greenwich, CT and doesn't have all that many
> "folk" pronunciations in her dialect.)  I just checked and she
> confirmed that she (like others who have commented) would always
> *spell* it as "wheelbarrow" but usually *pronounces* it as
> wheelbarrel.  She claims (essentially like Tom) that it's "easier to
> say" as 'barrel", but when I grilled her on whether she'd say "bow
> and arrel" because it's easier than saying "bow and arrow", she
> acknowledged she'd be extremely unlikely to do so.  So I think the
> folk etymological link with "barrel" is crucial in the former case,
> whatever the phonetic motivation.
>
> Larry