Hockey

[Scot LaFaive]

Yes, I distinguish between COT and CAUGHT, so HOCKEY for me has the same
vowel as COT.

Scot LaFaive


>From: Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Hockey
>Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 21:17:48 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
>Organization: Haskins Laboratories
>Subject:      Re: Hockey
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>James Harbeck wrote:
> >> On a Seinfeld episode from 1995, Michael Richards is talking about
>hockey
> >> tickets and he pronounces the sport as "hawk-y." Has anyone ever
>noticed
> >> this pronunciation of this word or similarly constructed words? IMDB
> >> lists
> >> him as originating from Los Angeles, for what that's worth.
> >
> > This surely betrays my Canadian phonemic stuntedness (we don't have a
> > separate phoneme for the open o, meaning "caught" and "cot" are
> > phonemically identical in CanEng), but can you give more detail on
> > how Richards pronounces it and how you would pronounce it? In Canada,
> > generally (I don't want to rule out a few regional variations, but
> > for the most part CanEng is pretty homogeneous), the first three
> > phonemes of "hockey" are identical with "hawk". So, because I wasn't
> > paying attention to this detail when I lived in the US (and I try not
> > to watch TV shows where they talk about hockey), I'm not sure which
> > of the two words has which sound for you...
>
>For those of us who distinguish COT from CAUGHT, HOCKEY would typically
>be in the COT class, with a low central unrounded vowel (except for
>advanced Northern Cities speakers, who might have a rather fronted
>vowel). Without recalling the specific Seinfeld episode, I suspect that
>Richards used a backish, perhaps somewhat rounded vowel. However, if his
>native speech lacks a contrast, it's likely that his native vowel (in
>both HOCKEY and HAWK) is closer to the low central unrounded vowel
>(unless he's really from Boston!), and that the rounded vowel represents
>an imperfect attempt to produce the contrast.
>
>
>
>--
>==============================================================================
>Alice Faber
>faber at haskins.yale.edu
>Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203)
>865-6163 x258
>New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203)
>865-8963
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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