re-ogling

[James C Stalker]

MW 11 and AHD 3, the ones I have on hand, give /o/ as in toe, go, first,
followed with /a/ as in mop.  Unfortunately for us sub Mason-Dixoners, no
/u/as in google is given as an option.  Damn.  More dialect retraining.

Speaking of which, or more accurately, writing of which, did anyone happen
to see the PBS News Hour piece on dialect retraining in Prestonburg, KY late
last week?  I betcha they say /ugl/, and it seems that they are going to
have to learn to do better.

JCS

Laurence Horn writes:

> I don't know if I'd have noticed it before last week, but the reader
> of my current Audiobook (Sue Grafton's _R is for Richochet_ just
> observed:
>
> "The guy was so busy ogling her, he nearly dropped the car keys"
>
> --with "ogling" pronounced [aglIng] as in "goggling".  In fact, now
> that I think of it, I wonder if "goggle" might not be one of the
> factors contributing to the "oggle" pronunciation, despite the
> difference in orthography, the way Barney Google might contribute to
> the "oogling" variant.
>
> And on a different topic, did anyone else who saw this headline in
> Sunday's N. Y. Times have trouble coming up with the right
> interpretation first time through?
>
> Bomb Kills 3 Iraqi Policemen in Procession
>
>
> Larry
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University