Hockey

[Alice Faber]

James Harbeck wrote:
>> COFFEE definitely has the CAUGHT vowel. The stereotyped NY
>> pronunciation, especially in COFFEE and CHOCOLATE, makes this vowel a
>> triphthong, starting almost like the vowel in GOOD.
>
> Ah, good. So Mike Meyers didn't have it wrong in his SNL skits either.
> Thanks.

Nope. That was playing on a real stereotype. I grew up in a NYC suburb
that was about evenly divided among generations-long residents, folks
who moved out from NYC, and folks who'd moved in from elsewhere in the
country to take jobs at NY area corporate headquarters. Kids not from
the NY area greatly enjoyed mocking the NYers' pronunciation of COFFEE
and CHOCOLATE, but they never noticed that we used the same vowel in DOG
and a host of other words. (They also couldn't understand why we called
a "pop" a "soda", but that's another story.)

--
 =============================================================================
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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