Re[4]: [tied] Re: On the ordering of some PIE rules

At 9:40:40 PM on Thursday, June 7, 2007, Rick McCallister wrote:

> In the US, the pronunciation is definitely /or/ and
> not /Or/.

This is meaningless until you explain what words you think
contain phonemes /o/ and /O/. In the Fromkin & Rodman
system, which is widely used for AmE, /O/ is the vowel of
<or> and <more>, and /o/ is the vowel of <so> and <code>.
In terms of phones rather than phonemes, the usual rhotic
U.S. pronunciation of <or> is definitely [Or], not [or].

> I have never heard anyone in the last 40 years or so
> distinguish pore and poor anywhere in the US.

And outside the south I have rarely heard anyone *not*
distinguish them in that time. (I'm 59.)

> In the Midwest, where I grew up pore and poor are
> pronounced the same,

The Midwest is a big place; I have no doubt that parts of it
had the poor-pore merger when you were growing up. Other
parts didn't.

> also in the NW and SW (where I lived many years) and in
> the Mid-Atlantic where I live now.

I was born in the Pacific Northwest, and both of my parents
were from there; I was quite startled the first time I heard
someone pronounce <poor> as if it were spelled <pore>.

Brian