The rebirth and use of the _merkin_

[Tom Zurinskas]

I wonder if "merkin" for American was born as an eggcorn.
 
Instead of saying "I'm an American", one might say "I'm American".  which might be heard as "I'm a merican" (if one is expecting the article "a" or "an" there).  Which can be misheard as "I'm a merkin".
 
Some USA accents might say "I'm a merkin".  In Philly for Maryland I've heard them say Merlin.

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, then Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 9.
The FREE English-based phonetic converters, URL and text , are at truespel.com

 
 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: The rebirth and use of the _merkin_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > "a public wig". Â Obviously, she takes it off in
> > private.
> 
> That's actually food for thought. Did the writer go to write "pubic"
> and inadvertently misspell it? Or was it the intention to sneak in a
> little pun? As when the female protagonist of a TV show casually
> mentioned that her male friend, an underwater welder, could hold his
> breath for three minutes, when he went down.
> 
> I'm surprised that the censors let that one go. After all, an
> underwater welder doesn't work holding his breath.
> 
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
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