[SPAM:####] Re: yet another spam eggcorn

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 8, 2004, at 6:40 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> (or is it simple illiteracy?)
> ===================
>
> From: "Intercourse ignition " <KBTEJIKDSY at jaydemail.com>
> Subject: Getting hard is easy
> Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 11:19:24 +0100
>
> Satisfy YOURSELF & LOVED once
>
> <http://123getnow.com/zen/?avta>Take Viagra

by some sort of odd synchronicity, this one comes in on the heels of a
report of the *opposite* replacement, from my friend Ken Rudolph:
-----
Apparently this guy is belgian; but still it's a unique and appealing
usage to me...

From: "TheDoc" <thedoc at theclinic.net>
Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis
Subject: pete sampras at the us-open
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 13:40:49 +0200

Sometimes, i wonder if pete sampras would attend the us open or even
watch it on tv. or like lendl , have nothing to do with it at all.

many former pro tennis player said goodbye to the sport ones they
retire.  I wonder why ?
------

as dInIs pointed out, final devoicing is very common in american
english.  well, final voiced obstruents are weakly voiced for most
speakers; voicing tends to cut out early.  (this is a kind of
lenition.)  i believe that some trace of the voicing remains in the
lengthening of the preceding vowel, though.

i *think* that the devoicing of final voiced stops in AAVE is a
separate phenomenon, the spread of the (fortitive) glottalization of
final voiceless stops to the corresponding voiced stops, which then (of
course) lose their voicing.

arnold