eggcorn

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 11 May 2005 22:22:06 -0400, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>>I knew the laxing occurred before /l/ and /g/, but I didn't realize
>>it's only before /g/ followed by /l/.  That makes more sense.
>
>It may be /g/ in general, in fact. I'm sure I've heard "lig" for "league"
>for example. It's hard for me to be sure since not every Pittsburgher does
>this and some only do it sometimes, and also since I've stopped noticing it
>after a few years here.

Well, I remember that onetime Pittsburgh Pirate Ralph Kiner, when he was a
Mets commentator, always said things like, "He lids the lig in RBIs" or
"He's the lig lidder" (league leader). Now that I check his bio, I see he
was born in New Mexico and spent his formative years in Alhambra,
California. Kiner didn't start playing in Pittsburgh till he was 23. But
he spent 8 years there, so maybe that was long enough for him to take on
Pittsburgh features.


--Ben Zimmer