spelling pronunciation--words in -or

[Charles Doyle]

So, Ben, you're saying it's a GEORGIA thing--Zell and me!

I believe I heard Chris Matthews use the other pronunciation of "metaphor"--with the emphatic -or. Of course, he didn't satisfactory answer Zell's question "Do you know what a mataphor IS?"  So his pronunciation can hardly be taken seriously . . . .

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:17:40 -0400
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: Re: spelling pronunciation--words in -or
>
>On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 2:58 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>>
>> My students occasionally evince incredulity/amusement/anguish at my pronunciation of "metaphor" with an unstressed final syllable /-f at r/.
>
>As did, famously, Zell Miller, before challenging Chris Matthews to a duel in 2004.
>
>"That was a metaphor, wasn‘t it?  Do you know what a metaphor is?"
>
>video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7644466/ (4 minutes in)
>transcript: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5892840/
>
>--Ben Zimmer

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