"parap(@)legic"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:00 PM -0500 5/21/07, Sarah Lang wrote:
>On May 21, 2007, at 11:30 AM, James Harbeck wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>>Subject:      Re: "parap(@)legic"
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>---------
>>
>>>I know I also insert a vowel sound there. But now that I know it's
>>>naughty,
>>>I will continue to do so :)
>>
>>Are you aware of other places in your dialect (or idiolect?) where
>>you similarly insert a schwa between [p] and [l]? That is, is there a
>>documentable transformation pattern?
>
>I'm from Edmonton Alberta and I also insert a schwa--but we Canadians
>are famous for that.
>
>(I also say "ash-phault" for "asphalt.")
>
As soon as I read that last comment, it occurred to me to check where
the Cowboy Junkies (and in particular their lead singer, Margo
Timmins) hail from, because it always puzzled me that they sing about
"ashphalt" (in "200 More Miles").  Sure enough, they're all
Torontonians.  Not Alberta, but apparently close enough for
(Canadian) government work.

LH

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