eggcorn

[Alice Faber]

Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> 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.
>

I watch a lot of Mets games, and so have heard a lot of Kiner's speech
(he's been on their broadcasting team for over 40 years, though he's cut
back considerably in recent years). I haven't noticed any particular
regionalisms in his speech, which, of course, doesn't mean that there
are none.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber
faber at haskins.yale.edu
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