double-take words

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Feb 20 04:57:32 UTC 2010


A headline in today's NYT Sports section read

BEFORE GAMES, LUGER FILED PROTEST

I keep reading this noun as ['lug at r] instead of the intended ['luZ at r]
(rhymes with "hoosier").  And in this particular frame that resulted
in my temporarily misreading the verb as "FIRED".  It's not that I'm
into gunplay, but I do have some familiarity with hard-g lugers--from
reading crime novels and mysteries--and rather less familiarity with
velar-softened lugers...

LH

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