rawk (1987)

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:55 AM -0600 2/24/05, Jim Parish wrote:
>Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>  The pronunciation spelling "rawk" for "rock" (music) came up recently on
>>  the alt.usage.english newsgroup.  For speakers who haven't merged "cot"
>>  and "caught", "rawk" suggests an exaggerated pronunciation that might be
>>  associated with young male fans of hard rock (possibly also evoking "raw"
>>  or "raucous").
>
>This spelling is also popular (AFAICT, more popular) for the verb "rock", as
>in "You RAWK!", a rather vague but forceful expression of praise.
>
Wonder if there's an influence from the "hawg" spelling (201,000
google hits, mostly for Harleys and such).  Then there's "dawg" which
I've always found curious, since that would be how I'd pronounce
"dog" without any help.  (Sort of like "luv" or "wuz", or "wimmin".)
At least in the "rawk" and "hawg" case the distinct spelling does
index a distinct pronunciation.

Larry