ou'doors

[Joanne M. Despres]

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I remember a grammar school teacher with a
strong French-Canadian accent (she was from a francophone part
of Maine) who pronounced "hot dog" without the "t," and with a
stress that was either even on both words or possibly even a little
stronger on the second word.  (It sounded something like
"hawDAWG.")  Is it possible that the pronunciation of English
words in places not far from Quebec could have been influenced by
French?  Just an amateur's wild guess here.

Joanne

On 22 Mar 2004, at 16:00, Dale Coye wrote:

> I was reminded when I was visiting my father in Central New York that the
> rural pronunciation of "outdoors" up there is /aUdorz/, with equal stress on the
> syllables and no trace of a /t/ or glottal stop.   My grandfather also used
> "outdoor" for the adv.--don't know if it's unique to that region or not.
>
> Dale Coye
> The College of NJ


Joanne M. Despres, Senior Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
jdespres at merriam-webster.com
http://www.merriam-webster.com