rawk (1987)

[Beverly Flanigan]

Oh, no, not again.  We just went through this kind of survey a couple years
ago!

At 05:19 PM 2/24/2005, you wrote:
>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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