Heard on The Judges

[Tom Zurinskas]

Just wondering - how long in seconds is a mora?

Main Entry: mo·ra
Pronunciation: \ˈmȯr-ə\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural mo·rae  \ˈmȯr-(ˌ)ē, -ˌī\ or mo·ras
Etymology: Latin, delay; akin to Old Irish maraid it lasts
Date: 1832
: the minimal unit of measure in quantitative verse equivalent to the time of an average short syllable



Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 09:52:40 +0100
> From: preston at MSU.EDU
> Subject: Re: Heard on The Judges
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Dennis Preston
> Subject: Re: Heard on The Judges
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Paul,
>
> Close but no cow pie; I have a different mora count (but the same
> segments as your first - [kaeu]. But in "cowl" I have a two-mora [aU]
> diphthong and a one-more lengthening of the final element ([U]). IN
> "cow" I have a simple two-mora long or diphthongized rhyme.
>
> dInIs
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Paul Johnston
>>Subject: Re: Heard on The Judges
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Wilson,
>>My NJ dialect DOES distinguish between cow and cowl, but they are
>>[kaeU] and [kAU] respectively, in rapid speech anyway. In careful
>>speech, I can prolong (and velarize) the [U] in the second one, or
>>put the /l/ in. Any others with this pattern?
>>
>>Yours,
>>Paul Johnston
>>On Mar 6, 2008, at 12:30 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>>> Subject: Heard on The Judges
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------
>>>
>>> Fifty-year-old black, female plaintiff:
>>>
>>> "After we reached our 25th wedding anniversary, I wanted for us to
>>> renew our _vowels_ [vauw at z]."
>>>
>>> I think that this is an ordinary hypercorrection and not an eggcorn.
>>> The woman was clearly trying to speak "above her station," as it were,
>>> being in court and all, following the well-known pattern, /kul/>
>>> [kuw at l], hence /vauz/ (generally indistinguishable from or even used
>>> in place of /vaulz/)> /vauw at lz/> [vauw at z].
>>>
>>> As a child down in Texas, I didn't - or couldn't - distinguish between
>>> "cow" and "cowl," using "cowl" for "cow," until I learned to read,
>>> consequently becoming aware both of the spelling, "cow," and,
>>> eventually, of the existence of a separate word, "cowl." I don't know
>>> what you would call this - maybe just a simple mishearing - since, not
>>> knowing "cowl," at the time, I couldn't have "corrected" "cow" to it.
>>> Or it could be that I interpreted the singular of [kauz] as being
>>> [kawl]. Who knows?
>>>
>>> BTW, her husband didn't go for it, she said, so she threw herself a
>>> 50th-birthday party, instead, thereby revealing her age.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>> --
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -----
>>> -Sam'l Clemens
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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