"open o" loss

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:43 PM -0400 4/24/08, David Bergdahl wrote:
>What about the farmer/former reversal

or the "Who laid the fort in the fart?" phenomenon, as a colleague
from Utah described it.

LH

>/Or/ : /ar/... or is Athens, GA too
>sophisticated for that?
>-db
>
>On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: "open o" loss
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  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
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