Boody

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:39 PM -0700 6/23/04, Patty Davies wrote:
>Hello folks - I always thought it was 'booty' not 'boody'.  I can't recall
>any of my friends pronouncing this with a 'd' sound - we are on the west
>coast.  I also have never associated 'up your booty' with 'vulva'/'sex'
>only with 'ass'.  I have never heard of "plumber('s) split" before.
>
>Patty
>
For what it's worth--for me, and I suspect many other speakers of
different regional varieties of AmEng, "boody" and "booty" (not to
mention "bootie") would be homonyms.  Are they really distinguished
(in non-careful speech) on the West Coast?  If so, do they involve
different degrees of voicing or flapping, or different vowels?  None
of those possibilities match my recollections of alveolars in this
position.  (Curiously, I don't seem to be able to come up with an
actual pair of -d-/-t- homonyms in this exact position, in the manner
of "ladder"/"latter", but perhaps "Rudy"/"Rootie" would work, for
those who remember Rootie Kazootie.)

Larry