"open o" loss

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:43 AM -0400 4/24/08, Charles Doyle wrote:
>"Four" would ordinarily have /o/ or /ow/; "for" would have the open
>o. (The parallel distinction often mentioned in the textbooks is
>"hoarse" vs. "horse.")
>

Yes, but for (*4) me the pun is extremely forced even though I merge
"horse" and "hoarse".  The preposition "for", unless it's
contrastively stressed ("Chris is FOR Obama, not aGAINST him"), has
an extremely bleached out schwaish vowel (if it's a vowel at all, as
opposed to a syllabic liquid), rather than the open- or closed-o of
"four".  It's hard for me to tell which vowel I have in the latter
(or in "horse" and "hoarse") because of the r-coloring.

LH

>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:11:36 -0400
>>From: Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>>
>>What vowels would the local dialect normally have?
>>
>>Herb
>>
>>On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 8:14 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>   Disregarding the traditional dialect of the local area, the
>>>University of Georgia's gymnastics team is sporting the slogan
>>>"Back 4 more" as it enters the NCAA meet this weekend, hoping to
>>>win its fourth consecutive national championship.
>>>
>>>   (The pun--which was not at first obvious to me--merges "four" and "for.")
>>>
>>>   --Charlie
>>>   _____________________________________________________________
>>>
>>>   ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>   The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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