Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?

Sat Feb 15 03:18:32 UTC 2014

Going entirely on gut instinct (I've never even heard the song) I'm guessing this is tongue-in-cheek visual-ish rhyme, not intended to be a 'real' rhyme, but rather a cute joking approximation of one. To the best of my knowledge, no dialect merges these. And it is kinda cute...

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
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----- Original Message -----

> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 7:59:39 PM
> Subject: Re: Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On Feb 14, 2014, at 11:58 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

> > Both, i.e., is there any U.S. dialect in which "yours" can be
> > pronounced to rhyme with "purse"?
> >
> > Gerald Cohen

> Not yurse, it appears. (or mine)

> LH

> > ________________________________________
> >
> > On Friday, February 14, 2014 10:33 AM Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >
> > Is your issue with the vowel sound, or the ending?
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 9:04 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> > <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> >> Subject: Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> A colleague told me today of a country-music song he heard in
> >> which
> >> "yours" rhymes with "purse", and he wonders whether such a feature
> >> exists
> >> dialectally in English. Or is it an artificial creation of the
> >> songwriter?
> >>
> >> The song is about a woman at a bar who has to leave at closing
> >> time. She
> >> forgets her purse
> >> and then comes back looking for it. The woman sings:
> >> "Ah think ah left my purse,"
> >> and the bartender sings in response:
> >> "Ah think it's yurse."
> >>
> >> Is anyone familiar with this feature?
> >>
> >> Gerald Cohen
> >>
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> >>
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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