Hockey

[Beverly Flanigan]

I too have the distinction, but I'm an older Minnesota native (younger
Minnesotans now merge the 'cot' and 'caught' vowels, to 'cot').  But
southern Ohio has (roughly) the same kind of merger found in eastern
Canada, where the merger is toward 'caught'.  It's not fully open o
(=backward C) though but rather midway between /a/ (short o) and open
o--described in some circles as "turned script a."  Hence I hear "hockey"
as close to, but not identical with, "hawkey" all the time in this part of
Ohio.  It puzzled me when I first came here in 1980, but it doesn't now,
obviously.  It's also the Pittsburgh vowel merger; I used to be puzzled by
my colleague's naming of her husband as "Dawn" until I realized she was
merging 'Don' and 'dawn' to something close to "dawn."  Following N/t/k all
affect this vowel, variably (Wells 1982 has the presumed order, but I can't
recall it offhand).

I don't know where Richards is from, but his pronunciation of "hawkey" may
be not "an imperfect attempt to produce the contrast" but his own true
vowel use.  We've been round this issue many times on this list, so the
Archives should have many exchanges on it.

Beverly Flanigan
Dept. of Linguistics
Ohio University

At 09:48 AM 5/19/2007, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Hockey
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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
> >
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