farty

[Dennis R. Preston]

Zackly. Most of the world's bad-talkers have four-for conflation with
far separate; St. Louis has for-far conflation with four separate;
Louisville has all three distinct (or did in the good ol days).

dInIs

>On Jul 22, 2004, at 4:48 PM, James A. Landau wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: farty
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>In a message dated > Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:53:19 -0400
>>>"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> writes:
>>>
>>>Close but no cigar. Yes, forty (with open o) falls together with
>>>farty (with short o), but four (with long o) is actually preserved in
>>>St Louis, as it is in my dialect (Louisville) ,one of the few which
>>>keeps the hoarse-horse distinction. (Alas, used to keep the
>>>hoarse-horse distinction, I should say.)
>>
>>I am from Louisville and I have no recollection of any hoarse-horse
>>distinction.  In fact, I can't imagine how whichever one does not
>>rhyme with "course"
>>would sound.
>
>In Saint Louis, you probably wouldn't notice anything strange about
>"hoarse," but "horse" would probably strike you as sounding a lot like
>"harse."
>
>-Wilson Gray
>
>>
>>"My mother's throat was red, but the doctor said that I had a hoarse
>>of a
>>different color" is a joke I heard in high school.  ("Horse of a
>>different color"
>>appears in the 1939 movie "Wizard of Oz".)
>>
>>           - James A. Landau


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu