"hawk" v.3

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2011 19:08:36 -0500  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> I can't remember how the subject came up, but a colleague and I, while
drinking coffee this morning, had a small argument about the verb "hawk"
in the sense of 'clear the throat of phlegm'. � He, speaking a dialect
that lacks the "open o," insisted that the word is spelled "hock." � Of
course, I won the argument. � But I am thinking that the OED needs to
enter "hock" as a variant spelling.

Another spelling (rare and archaic) is "hough".

>From A Dictionary of the English Language. Founded on that of Dr. Samuel Johnson ... By Robert Gordon Latham

http://books.google.com/books?id=Vcod78vxy9QC&pg=PA1182&lpg=PA1182&dq=%22hough%22%2Bphlegm&source=bl&ots=ned4df0ah3&sig=6gTvHFqgQAAB_Rek-b_-p6buhxQ&hl=en&ei=XK7bTpi9H4Hw0gHByv3DDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAjgU#v=onepage&q=%22hough%22%2Bphlegm&f=false

Jeff Miller's Web site  A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, Page 3" at
http://jeff560.tripod.com/words3.html has the following:

It is claimed that -OUGH can be pronounced 9 different ways in the following sentence:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.
However, David Olsen says that slough does not provide a unique pronunciation for -ough, but that HOUGH (pronounced hock) is a Scottish word, meaning the ankle joint of a horse, cow, or foul, or to hamstring, or it is an obsolete British word meaning to clear the throat. Olsen says that in order for the sentence to have 9 different ways of pronouncing -ough, it could be rewritten as:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed, houghed, and hiccoughed.
[Jim Spice writes that HOUGH (pronounced HOCK) is "alive and well in northeastern Wisconsin, even in its original meaning. To HOUGH is to snort mucus from your throat into your mouth in preparation for spitting." R. E. Davies writes, "This word also well known in Ontario, Canada, where the phrase 'hock a loogie' is alive and well. Most Ontarians would understand this phrase. As to the word 'loogie,' it also sounds like a good Scottish word, which is believed to mean 'that which one houghs.' I've never actually seen this particular phrase written down, but I'm sure school children in Ontario would not be surprised to find out that 'hock a loogie' should actually be spelled 'hough a loughie.'"]
Ted Clarke says there are 10 pronunciations for OUGH. He adds LOUGH, the Irish form of loch. But James A. Landau reports that the YOUGHIOGHENY River in Pennsylvania (a tributary of the Monongahela) is pronounced "YUCK-ih-gain-ee."

Stuart Kidd provides the following, with 10 pronunciations:

Though the cough, hough and hiccough so unsought would plough me through,
Enough that I o'er life's dark lough my thorough course pursue.
Kidd adds: "Note here that cough, hough and hiccough are somewhat onomatopoeic and that would gives yet another ou sound as well."


        - Jim Landau


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