eggcorn

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 10:24 PM 5/12/2005, you wrote:
>On Thu, 12 May 2005 20:54:35 -0400, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
>wrote:
>
> >I oversimplify.  Tensing of the lax high and mid front vowels and the
> >high back is common; hence 'poosh', 'feesh', and 'speycial' (and Rex's
> >'meyzure' and 'pleysure').  These are South Midland/South; listen to
> >Chuck Hagel and even Charles Grassley.
>
>Also, I believe the North Midland region has some tensing of "short e",
>but typically only before /g/ (as in 'eyg', 'leyg', 'peyg', 'beyg').  This
>can be heard as far east (and as far north) as northwest New Jersey.  (For
>such speakers, "eggcorn" is at its eggcorniest, since it's nearly
>homophonous with "acorn".)
>
> >They're spreading westward, I believe, so I'm not
> >surprised that a Utahn has them also, though younger people and uppity
> >college types might try to control them.
>
>The Wikipedia article on American article suggests that tensing of short e
>is indeed a salient feature of the Utah region:
>
>-----
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English/Standard_American_English#Utah
>Utah:
>* diphthongization of [E] as [EI]: "egg" and "leg" pronounced "ayg" and
>"layg", "leisure" and "pleasure" pronounced "layzhur" and "playzhur".
>-----
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer

"eyg-corn"--of course!  I didn't get in on the earliest exchanges on
eggcorns, but was this derivation from tensed /E/ mentioned?  Arnold or Larry?