Hypercorrection of /w/-/hw/

[Peter A. McGraw]

I always wondered why my horse stopped purty as you please when I hollered
"Ho!" whereas that dang mule just kep' a-goin'.  Now I know! :)

So anyway, it looks as if there was probably a [hwo] employed at one time,
at least, to halt beasts of burden.  Now I only wonder if it still exists.

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, May 25, 2004 2:01 PM -0400 "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
wrote:

>         Every Kentucky farmer I've ever known, including my father, said
> "wo" to halt his mules.  I'm not familiar with the ho or hwo
> pronunciations.  Maybe it's a horse/mule thing, I dunno.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Peter A. McGraw
> Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 1:49 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Hypercorrection of /w/-/hw/
>
> But do you say "wo" or "ho"?
>
> I understood from the previous discussion that there was a consensus that
> the discourse marker is [wo], never [hwo], and this has also been my
> observation.  My original message was meant to address the horse command
> exclusively, which in my experience is always [ho], not [hwo] (or [wo]).
> This being the case, I was wondering aloud where the form [hwo] came from
> or whether it still actually exists.
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> *****************************************************************
> Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
> ******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************