that costly "missing g"

[Laurence Horn]

--which wasn't a missing "g" at all, but an alveolar nasal where Pat Sajak insisted on a velar:

http://gawker.com/5970566/pronunciation-nazi-pat-sajak-steals-thousands-of-dollars-from-wheel-of-fortune-contestant-over-dropped-g

Of course, in a-swimmin' and other instances of a- prefixing, it's virtually inevitable (as I think Wolfram or someone else has observed) that for modern speakers, at least in the U.S. the -in' pronunciation /In/ sounds much more natural (they're a-huntin', a-fishin', a-ridin') than the "correct" -ing /IN/ (they're a-hunting, a-fishing, a-riding).  Maybe a dialectologist can offer an amicus curiae brief on Ms. Durette's behalf over the "g" that went a-missin?

LH

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