spelling pronunciation--words in -or

Jim Parish jparish at SIUE.EDU
Fri Mar 20 02:37:16 UTC 2009


Randy Alexander wrote:
> In 1966, Mr. Spock consistently pronounced -or endings as /or/ as a
> secondary stress instead of the standard unstressed /er/.  Does
> anybody know of any earlier examples?

It's been years since I last saw the cartoon, but I'm fairly certain that
Marvin the Martian spoke of his "Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space
Modulator", with the /or/ pronunciation, in "Hare-Way to the Stars"
(1958).

Jim Parish

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