rawk (1987)

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:19 PM -0800 2/24/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Blog, clog, cog, flog, frog, Gog, grog, hog, jog, log, nog, tog, and
>wog all rhyme.

[and, in response to John Baker, JL observes that "Hog rhymes with
Prague. Dog rhymes with...nothing !  Hog and Prague have the vowel of
"car." Dog has the vowel of "saw" and "law."]

I proudly share Jon's vowels.  The script-a of the above words also
shows up in "bog", "fog", and any coinages or acronyms of the form
C(n)og that might be constructed.  If I were going to invent a pet
name for beef stroganoff, "Strog" would rhyme with "b(l)og" and not
"dog".

>Dog don't.

Here's a tricky one--"dog, shmog--what I want is a ferret!"  I think
"shmog" has got to rhyme with "dog".  Maybe it has to be spelled
"shmawg" for us dog-versus-world types, though.

larry



>"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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