Eggcorn? "warn" > "worn"

[Herb Stahlke]

"cot/caught" merger works nicely becuase they don't merge to the same
vowel for some speakers.  Some low back unrounded as in Northern "cot"
and some have low back rounded as in Northern "caught."  I've found
such variation even among speakers from Central Indiana, a region that
has merged them.  So "caught-to-cot" doesn't cover what happens.

Herb
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Eggcorn? "warn" > "worn"
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> The word "merger" doesn't get it for me.  To say there is a "card/cord" merger is not clear.  Are both words said as "card" or as "cord" or as a phoneme inbetween the two or a combination of all the above?
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> The cot/caught merger to me means both words are said as cot.  In rare cases I have heard "on" said as ~aun which is the reverse.
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> Better said, the caught-to-cot merger.  Then one knows what is going on.  Basically folks are dropping out the "awe" phoneme altogether.  This deserves a name.  Phoneme dropping sounds about right.
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> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> see truespel.com
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>> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:45:09 -0500
>> From: db.list at PMPKN.NET
>> Subject: Re: Eggcorn? "warn"> "worn"
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: David Bowie
>> Subject: Re: Eggcorn? "warn"> "worn"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> From: Laurence Horn
>>
>>> I think I've mentioned here a while back that
>>> John Lawler informed me 40 years ago that in Utah
>>> one lays a fort in the fart. I found it hard to
>>> believe, but evidently it's true for at least
>>> some Utahns.
>>
>> Most of what i've looked at (my own work and others', published and
>> unpublished) on the Utahn card-cord merger that relies on acoustic
>> analysis finds that it's a variable merger of {cord} into {card}, not a
>> reversal.
>>
>> Complicating this is that the {cored} class seems to not participate in
>> the merger. Looking more intensely into that is next on my agenda,
>> starting this summer.
>>
>> --
>> David Bowie University of Central Florida
>> Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>> house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>> chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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