[Ads-l] "gawker" rhymes with "rocker"

[David Champion]

* On 13 Jun 2016, Amy West wrote: 
> On 6/12/16 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Sat, 11 Jun 2016 17:57:16 -0400
> > From:    Galen Buttitta<satorarepotenetoperarotas3 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: "gawker" rhymes with "rocker"
> > 
> > I don't see what the big deal is. Some dialects have this as a distinct sound (in one way or another); others don't. It doesn't make any one way of speaking better or worse, and those who don't have the COT-CAUGHT merger make do just fine.
> 
> I've just started as program manager at Literacy Volunteers of Greater
> Worcester and just sat in on one of our "Basic Pronunciation & Grammar"
> classes (ESL), and the teacher used the pen/pin minimal pair as a
> pronunciation example, and I thought, "Well, that's an example that wouldn't
> be used in a region where those pronunciations have merged. . . "

Where I come from, neither word is distinguishable from "paean" - except
that anyone saying "paean" is like to get run off by a jacked-up F-350.

-- 
David Champion • dgc at bikeshed.us

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org