lawyer/liar confluence

[Jonathan Lighter]

Just so they were the same.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: lawyer/liar confluence
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But perhaps "loiyer" manifested as [lai jer] by the "hoist"-to-"heist" process?

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:03:53 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: lawyer/liar confluence
>
>
>But, Charlie, wouldn't they more likely have been saying "loiyer" [lOij at r] and not "liar" [laij at r]?
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
>>
>> "Lawyer is to be pronounced _Lyer_ as is common now in some counties"--John Harland,_A Glossary of Words Used in Swaledale [etc.]_ (English Dialect Society, vol. 4 [1870]: 75).
>>
>> The confluence occured with some frequency in satiric epigrams and dramatic repartee of the 17th century.
>>
>> --Charlie
>> _____________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> ---- Original message ----
>> >Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:22:44 -0700
>> >From: Jonathan Lighter
>> >
>> >
>> >Several female members of the polygamous Texas sect appeared on Fox & Friends earlier today. One spoke of being unable to see a "lawyer," but the stressed vowel was so unrounded that the word was virtually identical to a Texas pronunciation of "liar." At first, that's what I thought she said.
>> >
>> > The woman's phonology was otherwise unremarkable,
>> >
>> > I wouldn't go so far as to call this homophony "phonological justice," but it comes close.
>> >
>> > JL

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