Heard on the Today show: "whuppin'"

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:27 AM -0400 10/28/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Matt Lauer, speaking of how to react to a bully:
>
>" ... Give him a _whuppin'_! ..."
>
>
>What struck me is that Lauer spoke _whuppin'_ as though that was the
>standard pronunciation in his dialect, when we know that it isn't. No
>air quotes, special intonation, facial expression, etc.
>
>Is this becoming or has it become a hip, slang-pronunciation among
>sE speakers?
>
This has been standard for some time in venues like ESPN's
SportsCenter for the metaphorical extension:  one team invariably
gives another team a whuppin', never a whippin' (or whipping).

LH

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