rawk (1987)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Blog, clog, cog, flog, frog, Gog, grog, hog, jog, log, nog, tog, and wog all rhyme.

Dog don't.

JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: rawk (1987)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You mean there are some of you guys who don't rhyme hogs and dogs! I
knew y'all had different vowels in off and on, but this really pushes
it.

dInIs

>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


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu

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