[Ads-l] fewofa

[Jonathan Lighter]

Unless you're Elmer Fudd.

JL

On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 12:22 AM, Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fewofa
>
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>
> On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 1:58 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: fewofa
> >
> >
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> >
> > Seems like Brinkley could have opted for "in so few words" here, but I =
> > do like "fewofa".  Except maybe it should be "fewva"--I read "fewofa" on
> =
> > first pass as if it were Elmer Fudd trying to ask for a felafel.
> >
>
> That's a really odd reading given that "ew" always sounds [ju] after /f/,
> and that three-syllable words are more commonly accented on the first
> syllable in English.
>
> Randy
>
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