"Blawg"

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:06 AM -0500 12/31/07, Paul Johnston wrote:
>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.

I managed to avoid saying it through all the years I lived in Long
Island and I see no reason not to continue the practice.  But under
duress, gun to the head and so on, I share your intuition:
"Hauppauge" would be another "PAUG"/"PAWG" word like the acronyms
mentioned below.  I'm still not sure how it managed to escape velar
softening, but it did so, hence /'hOpOg/.  One confounding feature
here and with "quahog" below is the fact that the crucial syllable is
unstressed, which makes the vowel a bit harder to discern, but my
suspicion is that I rhyme "quahog" (which is a chowder clam, for you
landlubbers, who may also be unaware that the first syllable is /ko/)
with "hog" and not "dog".  But now that I look it up in AHD4, I see
that "quahaug" is an alternate spelling, which supports your
pronunciation for the tough bivalve.  I'll try to remember that, in
case I ever have occasion to pronounce "quahog" during the remainder
of my allotted years.\

(I wonder if "Hauppauge" derives from the Narrangansett.  "Quahog"
does, even if it looks more like Pig Latin.)

LH

>   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:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>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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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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