Heard on local NE PA news

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:03 AM -0800 1/26/10, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On Jan 26, 2010, at 9:44 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>
>>
>>I don't know if this has been discussed here or elsewhere, but I
>>noticed a radio ad this morning promoting some upcoming game by
>>describing the teams involved as "powerhouses", with the
>>pronunciation /paw at rhausIz/...
>
>/hausiz/ for the plural "houses" is common enough that you'd need to
>get more information about the speaker's pronunciations.

True for the radio announcer, but as noted I'm pretty sure I'd be
likely to pronounce "powerhou[s]es" with a voiceless fricative if
it's a metaphorical use but I'd never pronounce it that way if it's
used literally (as an endocentric compound, as in "lighthouses",
"outhouses").  Is there anyone else who shares that intuition?  If
it's just me, I withdraw the claim.

>>Arnold (or Ben), is there a Language Log posting on "powerhou[s]es"
>>or analogous cases?
>
>i don't recall any.
>
>arnold
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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