A nursery rhyme

[Barnhart]

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Tuesday, July 20,
2004 at 9:25 AM -0500 wrote:
>she was horehead?/hoarhead?/whorehead? ...?

Must be horrid for the stress.  Aren't all of the bogus ones spoken with
major stress on the first syllable (secondary stress on the second
syllable) and with a different juncture between syllables?  After all,
forehead in British English where the rhyme comes to us from, is FOREhead
(with tertiary stress on the final syllable).   Flames to me, not the list.

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com