Three pairs of pronunciation

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:46 AM -0400 6/28/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>A book a friend is reading (sorry, I didn't record the title) claims
>that the following three pairs of words are pronounced differently:
>      for             four
>      morning     mourning
>      horse         hoarse
>
>Initially I said of myself that I pronounce these pairs identically
>(perhaps with a "deeper" OU than O in "mo[u]rning?).  But now having
>rolled them around in my mouth (moth?) too much, I no longer trust
>what I hear.
>
>The OED does make distinctions (although for mo[u]rning only between
>British and American), but I cannot quite convince myself that they
>are present.  Or expressed correctly:  the key tells me "fur" is
>pronounced like "burn"?  Especially for rhotic moi, who *perhaps*
>pronounces "horse" with an R.
>
>What do others hear and say, esp. from/about rhotic speakers?  (And
>excluding the pronunciation of "for" with the @.)
>
The locus classicus is that last pair, horse/hoarse.  Our local
advocate for this distinction was Dennis (a.k.a. dInIs) Preston, but
I can't remember what the qualities in question were.  Although I'm a
staunch differentiator of Mary/merry/marry/Murray, my horse sounds
just like my hoarse.

LH

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