rawk (1987)

[Dennis R. Preston]

David,

I always knew there was something I really liked about you. Now I
know what it is: your open oh/ah distribution before /g/ is exactly
the same as mine! Maybe I am not the last living speaker of Standard
American English (SAE 10-W-40, the norm) after all!

But, I wonder if the notorious variability you mention might not be
explained by a word frequency/early learning appeal. Every one of
your (and my) open oh words (hog, frog, dog, log...) is a relatively
high-frequency and early-learned word; every ah word is a relatively
low-frequency and later-learned word (jog, cog, blog...). In my case,
for example, since "smog" is right in the middle (middle frequency,
learned only a little earlier than some of the ah words), I don't
like either pronunciation.

How do you deal with some of the other historical open oh producers?
ah before /f/ is really hard for me to get, even in late learned
words (e.g., Hoffa). I remember a "Poff" family where I grew up, and
I think we ah-ed them, but it hits my ear funny even today.

dInIs




>From:    Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>: At 10:55 AM -0600 2/24/05, Jim Parish wrote:
>
>:: 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.
>
>Provo (Utah) High School's mascot is the Bulldogs, and along the side of the
>school is emblazoned "Go Dawgs!" However, this area has the cot-caught
>merger.
>
>My suspicion is that in this case (and likely others) it's imitation of the
>Georgia Bulldogs, not an index of any particular pronunciation.
>
>In a FWIW aside, i have the cot-caught distinction, and 'hog' and 'hawg' are
>both pronounced the same for me. The <og> words are notoriously variable;
>for me there's dog, hog, slog, fog, frog, and log (open-o) versus blog, pog,
>cog, jog, toggle, and noggin (ah).
>
>David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.


--
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