'mo = homo

[Alice Faber]

Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>I tend to agree, although I'm just speculating here.  Some other
>partially unstressed remnants I've been thinking about are those used
>for sports team hypocoristics, but they represent secondarily
>stressed rather than truly unstressed cases:  the 'Lanche (for the
>Colorado Avalanche hockey team, a.k.a. the Avs), the 'Canes (for the
>Hurricanes), the 'Noles (for the Seminoles), etc.  There's also the
>Wolves (for the Minnesota Timberwolves, a.k.a. T-Wolves), but that's
>a bit different, since it's really a compound reducing to its head,
>and "wolves" is definitely stressed to begin with, albeit
>secondarily; cf. the 'Boys and the 'Skins, from Dallas and DC
>respectively.   I can't think of bisyllabic team names with initial
>stress where the second syllable is retained, once we eliminate
>compounds and modifier-head constructions (e.g. "the Sox"); what
>doesn't occur is e.g. the 'Kees of NY, the 'Kers of L.A.--even though
>the latter is a nice reanalysis in the making.

I'm not sure what actual pronunciation underlies the shortening of
Coyotes to 'Yotes, but that somehow fits at least with 'Lanche and
'Canes.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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