Facebook: "get out of _hawk_"

[Tom Zurinskas]

Awe-droppers refuse to say the phoneme "awe" (~au) and instead say it as "ah".  Thus when they say "get out of hock" the word "hock" can mean "hawk" and a person that's used to awe-dropping when hearing "hock" can assume the word is "hawk", and spell it hawk.   I saw an awe-dropper write  the term "hawking one's wares" as "hocking one's wares", which is to pawn and not sell.
My wife is now an awe-dropper and today said the word "off" as "ahf" (~aaf).  She was week on the "f" and I thought she said "on" (~aan) not "off" (~auf).  I can just imagine the person at the nuclear power plant saying "Be sure the valve is ~aaf, and being taken as "off".
I think ladies more than men are the primary awe-droppers.  My cousin's ex-wife calls her son Shawn ~shaan now instead of ~shaun.

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 12.See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk


 
 > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Facebook: "get out of _hawk_"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Writer is from "Portland." Thanks to Fb's weird implementation of
> "privacy," I'd have to friend this guy to find out where Portland is.
> 
> Since I distinguish between "cot" and "caught," I didn't immediately
> understand WTF he was trying to say.
> 
> -- 
> -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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