rawk (1987)

[Dennis R. Preston]

David,

I belive this further confirms my speculation (if speculation can be
confirmed). You are of a generation which would have learned both
"smog" and "jog" earlier. When I was a wee lad, the air was clean and
we just ran.

dInIs



>From:    "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
>: 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!
>
>Well, i am younger, so i probably don't speak it *perfectly*--i don't have
>the horse-hoarse distinction, after all. Mine must be SAE 5W30.
>
>: 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.
>
>I remember having trouble with this one--i've finally settled on open-o.
>
>"Jog", FWIW, is another one i had trouble with growing up, though in that
>case i settled on ah.
>
>(And yeah, i'm pretty definite about my categorization of <og> words--if i
>were writing rhyming poetry, "hog" most certainly could *not* rhyme with
>"cog".)
>
>: 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.
>
>"Hoffa" is clearly open-o for me. Let's see: cough, trough, &c...Yep,
>consistently open-o. There may be an exception out there, but i can't think
>of one.
>
>
>
>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
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736