"foiemageddon", WOTY for the lily-livered set

[Joel S. Berson]

I'll vote for it!  But how do these non-rhotic
Californians pronounce "foie" to make it a
minimal pair with "Ar" (pronounced I presume
"ah")?  "Fwa" (as I pronounce "foie") or "fa" (or both?) vs. "ah"?

For me, "fwa" is not "fa".  Are there minimal pairs for these two?

Thanks,
Joel

At 6/6/2012 08:49 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>The Times on the upcoming "crise de foie":
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/dining/california-chefs-mount-a-repeal-of-foie-gras-ban-set-for-july-1.html
>
>"The countdown to foie-mageddon has begun. With
>less than a month until California’s
>first-in-the nation ban on foie gras takes
>effect, fans of the fattened duck and goose
>liver are buying out stocks of the delicacy,
>searching for legal loopholes and sating
>themselves at a series of foie-heavy goodbyes. [
]"
>
>
>Other references to foiemageddon, with or
>without hyphen, can be found, e.g. in blogs
>associated with the online version of New York
>magazine, but they all seem fairly recent.  The
>label works best for non-rhotic speakers for
>whom "Armageddon" and "foiemageddon" are minimal pairs.
>
>LH
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org