Spelling errors as a reflection of non-standard speech

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:07 AM -0700 7/23/04, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Jul 22, 2004, at 8:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>>In the men's restroom, as was said back in the day, in a bar in the
>>South-Central Area of Los Angeles, I once saw the following graffito
>>written over a urinal: "Smile! You on Candy Cambra!" Would that I had
>>been there when that was written! I would have loved to know where the
>>author came from. I've *never* heard anyone pronounce "camera" as
>>"cambra" in my entire life...
>
>probably not with a full [b].  but a brief transitional oral stop in
>[mr] (as in "camera") is extremely common; it's what happens when the
>nasal gesture is ended a bit before the lips are opened.  people who
>notice this transitional stop might then interpret it as lexical.
>
Isn't this a relatively common source of sound change?  Two examples
that come to mind are "humble" (< Lat. humilis) and Gk. "andro-" (as
in "androgyny", "android", etc.) from earlier Gk. "aner" ('male
human').  And I'm pretty sure the -b- in Span. "hombre" is the same
sort of interpolated stop (Lat. homo, hominis, orig. from the same
"humus" root as "humble").

larry

P.S.  Just checked the AHD4 and confirmed another example:  the -b-
in "camber" < earlier "camur"