ah/ awe

[Tom Zurinskas]

>From: David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at GMAIL.COM>
>On 9/30/06, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > To my ears it's not a merger between "ah" and "awe" it's a substitution
>of
> > "ah" for "awe" and a dropping of the "awe" phoneme altogether.
>
>In my experience teaching in an area with lots of low-back merger speakers,
> > if you question them directly they will say the "ah" phoneme is the
> > underlying one and the "aw" is the innovation (the opposite of the
>history).
> >
>-db

We should have them listen to some old movies.  Here's a small poem for
"awe" practice.
tz

The Haughty Fawn
By Tom Zurinskas
Many examples of the sound of “awe” and no instances of “ah”

In the fall, a small fawn paused near the wall.
We stood in awe as we saw the marauder
Paw and gnaw on some frosty long straws undaunted.
We all talked about plausible thoughts
That we ought to halt its audacious jaws,
Because it’s gnawing might cost us the lawn.
So we tossed a ball at the naughty fawn to run it off,
Although it’s against the law to loft a ball at a fawn.
And we prawled on the lawn to avoid getting caught.
Still it’s jaws wouldn’t stall in mauling the lawn.
So we all stood tall and called at the creature raw
But it scoffed our squall as if knowing the law
And staunchly taunted our raucous throng.
Then without balking at our naughty fraud
It yawned and jauntily stalked away.
No tawdry pawn this haughty fawn.




tz

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