Popsicle

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/6/2010 10:28 AM, Amy West wrote:
>Perhaps I'm a freak, but I keep the /s/ and say it as fudge-sicle.

So am I, then -- I keep the /s/.

>And fudge-icle sounds really odd to me.

It sounds icky -- something one wouldn't eat.

[Re icky -- a high-school friend was named Irene C... K..., and of
course nicknamed "Icky".  Just about the time of the following
quotation from the OED:  "1952 S. KAUFFMANN Philanderer (1953) 13
'It's just that{em}oh, I don't know{em}now everything's so
icky.'..Another of her dubious charms. The high-school words."]

> From the little that I understood of Damien Hall's analysis, I agree
>that there's reasons for folks to ellide the /s/. I don't do
>phonology/phonetics because I have a tin ear, but there seems to me
>to be a different quality to the /i/ between the pronunciation with
>the /s/ and the one without. Am I just fooling myself? (See mention
>of the tin ear above.)

I'm not a phonologist and have a tin ear, but I think my (vocal
cords?) form the area around the /i/ in "fudgesicle" and "fudgeicle"
differently also.  Perhaps due to different pause and stress.

Joel


>---Amy West
>
>>Date:    Sun, 4 Apr 2010 17:26:44 -0400
>>From:    Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>>Subject: Re: Popsicle
>>
>>I (and my parents)said that too!  Maybe Fudgicle is a Northeastern
>>thing.
>>
>>Paul Johnston
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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