Eggcorn? "warn" > "worn"

[Paul Johnston]

I'd imagine the warn/worn distinction, for those who have it, would
be parallel to things like horse/hoarse--going back to an old /Or/:/
o:r/ distinction.  The possibility of a distinction shown in OED is a
relic of that--in really old fashioned British Received
Pronunciation, you would get /wO:n/ vs. /wO at n/, but most people born
after Winston Churchill wouldn't have that.  I'd suspect it survives
nicely in the American South--or at least many parts of it.  Wouldn't
a pronunciation of warn with /A/ be possible in St. Louis, and a few
other Midland areas, incl. the ones where people are "barn in the born"?

Paul Johnston
On Feb 9, 2009, at 12:46 AM, Randy Alexander wrote:

> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org