Hoarse, four, mourning etc.

[Tom Zurinskas]

I wonder which pronunciation of "for" is most frequent.  m-w.com lists ~fer first.

Main Entry: 1for
Pronunciation: \fər, (ˈ)fȯr, Southern also (ˈ)fär\

Please reply to this or let me know if you see this on the ADS list.  I've got spam deletion problems.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling





>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Hoarse, four, mourning etc.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10:01 AM -0400 7/2/10, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>I use "4" for "for" in text-messaging, and AFAIK I don't pronounce them
>>differently, apart from stress-related difference.
>
> Same here (well, same here if I used text messaging), but I suspect
> that even text messagers (as I would also refer to them) who
> distinguish the vowels in question would "forgive" the (relatively
> slender) difference in this context and use the abbreviation. I
> remember all of us in high school writing things like "2 Good 2 B
> 4-Got-10" without pronouncing "forgotten" like 4-Got-10"
>
> LH
>
>>
>>Sideslipping: Interesting that you use "messengers" here. I would use
>>"messagers", from the (recent?) verb "to message" 'to send a message',
>>reserving "messenger" for 'one who carries a message'.
>>
>>m a m
>>
>>On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 6:14 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Do you think that text messengers, advertisers and others who use the
>>> number 4 in place of 'for' make a distinction in the pronunciation of four
>>> and for?
>>>
>>> --Margaret Lee
>
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