foilage

[Damien Hall]

I think _foliage_ > _foilage_ is an eggcorn, though it's difficult to pin down
the exact reasons why.  It's actually a mistake I used to make as a child.  (I
was a precocious child, to be aware of the word at all, as opposed to just
saying _leaves_;  sorry about that.)

Semantically, for someone who speaks only English (which describes me at that
time), you could explain it by the similarity of leaves to foil, in that both
are thin, flat and rustly.  For someone who has at some point learnt at least
some French, which probably describes most British adults at least, there's
also a possible link with _feuille_ 'leaf', which does at least contain an
upgliding diphthong beginning with a rounded element, like the one in _foil_.

Phonologically / phonetically, the link could be as simple as a spelling
transposition aided by the extant word _foil_, if that counts.  If the mistake
is made by someone who vocalises /l/ in that environment (cf _William_ [wi:j at m]
etc), you can get to something that's kind of close to _foilage_:

[fowliIJ] > [fowjiIJ] or something

but then the /l/ would have to be hypercorrectly reintroduced in the wrong place
in the word, by attraction from _foil_, maybe?

But you can tell I am running into difficulties here:  I have the feeling that
I'm reaching.  I'd be glad to be knocked down by others!

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

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