[Ads-l] Heard: "primer"

[Herb Stahlke]

I grew up with [prIm at r] for the early reader and [praIm at r] for the paint.
But on Monday I heard another such variation.  Our local community chorus
is singing some of Eric Whitacre's settings of Ogden Nash.  In

The cow is of the bovine ilk:
One end is moo, the other milk.

I grew up with the pronunciation [bovIn].  The bass sitting next to me says
[bovaIn].  I asked the director which pronunciation he wanted, and he opted
for [bovaIn].  I vaguely remember seeing a clip of Ogden Nash reciting the
poem, and he said [bovIn].

Herb

On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 8:24 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard: "primer"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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