"Blawg"

[Paul Johnston]

I didn't see your posting before posting my own, but we're on the
same effete page, I guess.  How would you pronounce "Hauppauge", Long
Island?  That does rhyme with dog for me.  One exception to the "og"
rule--quahog.  Probably because, to me, it's a New England word,
learned late in life.  I'd pronounce it to rhyme with dog rather than
hog.  Nothing else though.

Paul Johnston
On Dec 30, 2007, at 11:21 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Blawg"
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> At 10:04 AM -0500 12/30/07, Dennis Preston wrote:
>> 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
>
> We effete easterners (or me, anyway) also distinguish two
> collections, and frequency/early acquisition are relevant variables
> for us too, but playing out in a rather imbalanced way.  I have /dOg/
> with open-o and...that's it.  The other -ogs all have /a/.  So not
> only doesn't "blog" rhyme with "dog", but nothing else does either!?
> Did I realize this?
>
> Actually there might be local Indian names in New England whose last
> syllable end in things like -paug that would rhyme with "dog".  Or if
> I were pronouncing PAUG [the acronym for the Portland Access Users
> Group, the Professional Auto-CAD Users Group, or the Philadelphia
> Auto-CAD Users Group] or PAWG [Pissed Americans With Guns] that would
> as well.  For -og words, though, "dog" stands alone, it appears.
> Anyone else share this weird idiolect?  Have we already discussed
> this?
>
> LH
>
>
>
>>
>>> ---------------------- 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
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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