Same word, different meanings

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
> Just did that, and got shot down.  This time our speaker
> held that noNz^iN 'stand' and noNz^iN 'rain' are in fact
> homonyms, as Kathy originally stated. ...

>   S^ettaN'na naNz^iN' naNz^iN'.
>   Still      rain     stands
>   It's still raining.

This is just the reaction I got in 1985, with the same example, almost.  I
got just:

NaNz^iN naNz^iN.  'It keeps on raining.'

This was considered a bit along the lines of word play, I think, though
not characterized as humorous.  It was just considered interesting that
you could say this.

Mind you, this kind of assurance from a native speaker doesn't apply if
you can actually hear a difference or find a test that demonstrates that
the speakers themselves hear one they aren't aware of.  For example,
record several tokens of each, shuffle them into a known order, and see if
people can usually distinguish 'He's standing' from 'It's raining'.  Even
if it's proverbial that it's hard to tell, and a source of humor, etc.,
there might be a difference.

For example, my understanding is that American English speakers have
trouble hearing some vowel contrasts.  I think cot : caught is notorious
in this regard.  Some folks contrast the pair, some don't and some do, but
think they don't.  Some don't but think they do.  I think there is
instrumental evidence that some people who think there is no contrast make
one.

Apart from this, two similar forms might differ in some intonational
contexts, but not in others.  For example, they might sound the same in
isolation, but behave differently following a particular preceding forms,
etc.

Anyway, I couldn't hear one myself in this case, apart from the first
being overall higher than the second in the example - presumably due to
downstepping in a phrase - but I don't entirely trust my ear with it, so
that Rory's report of a subtle difference didn't strike me as at all
implausible.  In isolation the two forms certainly sounded the same to me.

Isn't there a 'hair' form that falls into this homophonous set, too, in
OP but not in the rest of Dhegiha?