[Ads-l] The pronunciation of "dwarf"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 4, 2019, at 11:38 PM, Paul A Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU> wrote:
> 
> As a very young kiddie (5 years old or so), I used the pronunciation "The Tins" for a pair of local twins we knew in Monroe, NY,.

Ah, that brings up the dangers of conflating “twinkle” (what stars do) form “tinkle” (what we all do).


> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2019 11:19 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: The pronunciation of "dwarf"
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: The pronunciation of "dwarf"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>> On Apr 4, 2019, at 11:05 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> =20
>> As a child,, I used the pronunciation, [Snow White and the Seven] =
> "Drawfs."
>> But I switched to "dWarf" as soon as I learned to read and to =
> articulate
>> /dw/. Read somewhere or other, back in the '40's, that Eisenhower got =
> his
>> nickname from his inability to say "Dwight," when he was learning to =
> talk.
> 
> As long as he could distinguish =E2=80=9Ctot=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Ctwat=E2=
> =80=9D...
>> =20
>> On Thu, Apr 4, 2019 at 4:48 PM Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>> =20
>>> In a recent conversation with a friend, within an interval of about =
> 20
>>> seconds he pronounced the word =E2=80=9Cdwarf=E2=80=9D four times =
> without the /w/. I asked
>>> him about the pronunciation, and he insisted that that=E2=80=99s the =
> only way he=E2=80=99s
>>> ever heard it pronounced (obviously untrue, since he had just heard =
> me ask,
>>> =E2=80=9CDo you always pronounce =E2=80=9CdWarf=E2=80=9D without the =
> /w/?=E2=80=9D).  He is a retired
>>> linguistics professor in his late 60=E2=80=99s, white, who lived in =
> Maryland and
>>> Delaware from birth through his early adulthood.
>>>           None of the dozen dictionaries I consulted record a w-less
>>> pronunciation of =E2=80=9Cdwarf.=E2=80=9D Of the several specialized =
> pronunciation
>>> dictionaries that I looked at, only one does--the Oxford Dictionary =
> of
>>> Pronunciation for Current English (2001), which shows the =E2=80=9Cw=E2=
> =80=9D inside
>>> parenthesis marks, which means (according to the introduction) that =
> the =E2=80=9Cw=E2=80=9D
>>> belongs to an =E2=80=9Coptional pronunciation=E2=80=9D in American =
> English.
>>>           Is the pronunciation without the /w/ at all common?  Is it
>>> regional?
>>> =20
>>> =20
>>> --Charlie
>>> =20
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> =20
>> =20
>> =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
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
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