"Blawg"

[David Bowie]

From:    Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>

> Fog and smog are good examples of my early-vesus-late suggestion. Fog
> is always open-o for me, and I knew the word when I was a kid. I
> still don't know how to pronounce 'smog,' which I learned much later
> (Course They wadn't none around Louisivlle.)

I pronounce "smog" with open-o, and open-o seems to be my default for
-og words, the exceptions being cog and jog and bog, all variable.

Real-life result of this: Near the end of the Bugs Bunny classic "What's
Opera, Doc!", i used to think that Elmer Fudd was yelling "Come thunder!
Come lightning! Come hurricanes!" and so forth, culminating in a shouted
"SMITE!!"

Actually, as i learned quite literally a few months ago, he yells out
"SMOG!!", a much more comedic-effect climax. However, my
open-o-defaulting (and occasionally ay-monophthongizing) self analyzed
the [a] as a monophthongized [ay], and so...

--
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.

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