"Blawg"

[Paul Johnston]

New York area speakers also distinguish cot from caught, but have dog
in the caught class and all other
"og" words in the cot class.  Therefore, blog = [blAg] not *[blo at g]
or the like.

Paul Johnston
On Dec 30, 2007, at 10:04 AM, Dennis Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Blawg"
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> us open-o /a/ distinguishers have a very uneven assignment of the
> phonemes to different words, especially before /g/.  In my case,
> which I bet is not very different from David's, my earliest learned o
> + /g/ words are all open-o (hog, frog, log, dog, etc...); my later
> learned words (cog, togs, etc...) are either /a/ or variable (e.g.,
> smog). I think I would assign /a/ to "blog," although I ain't much
> for introspection in such matters.
>
> dInIs
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: "Blawg"
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>
>>>  How will "dawg"-sayin' folk distinguish "blawg" from "blog" in
>>> speech?
>>>  By contex', I reckon.
>>
>> Actually, my cot-caught-distinguishin' self pronounces blog with an
>> open-o, probably out of analogy with log, which has an open-o for me.
>>
>> (Hence my weakly-joked wonderment at why it was spelled blawg, not
>> blog
>> in my earlier post. I realized right after i sent it that that was a
>> pretty opaque comment.)
>>
>> --
>> David Bowie                               University of Central
>> Florida
>>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org