Spelling errors as a reflection of non-standard speech

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 23, 2004, at 10:13 AM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At 9:07 AM -0700 7/23/04, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

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

yes, yes, yes.  there are piles of cases.  i thought of mentioning
this, but decided not to do it from (my very imperfect) memory and not
to wait until i got to my library.  thanks for doing the homework for
me/us, larry!

arnold