[Ads-l] Heard: "primer"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Like Larry said.

JL

On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 7:42 PM, 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: Heard: "primer"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I always pronounced it pr[aI]mer growing up, like the stuff you put on =
> the walls as an aperitif for paint; I figured if God wanted us to =
> pronounce it as pr[I]mer He would have spelled it with two m's. But =
> later began to realize that lots of other people call it a [prIm at r] =
> despite the spelling.  Now I'm just not sure, so I avoid the word, which =
> usually isn't too hard to do, even here in the land of Noah Webster's =
> Blue Backed Speller and New England Primer. =20
>
> LH
>
> > On Oct 22, 2015, at 4:34 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >=20
> > "His record is a pr[aI]mer of small-time crookery."
> >=20
> > When I was in the first grade, the first two "Dick and Jane" =
> book(let)s
> > were referred to as the "pre-pr[I]mer" and the "pr[I]mer."
> >=20
> > --=20
> > -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
> >=20
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