Re: Re[2]: [tied] Re: On the ordering of some PIE rules

In the US, the pronunciation is definitely /or/ and
not /Or/. I have never heard anyone in the last 40
years or so distinguish pore and poor anywhere in the
US. In the Midwest, where I grew up pore and poor are
pronounced the same, also in the NW and SW (where I
lived many years) and in the Mid-Atlantic where I live
now.


--- "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

> At 3:52:52 PM on Thursday, June 7, 2007, Rick
> McCallister
> wrote:
>
> > Which gives rise an unrelated question
>
> > Linguistic books tend to categorize <or> as /Or/
> ("awr")
> > rather than /or/, yet I have never heard anyone
> ever
> > pronounce <or> as /Or/.
>
> Presumably you mean that you never heard anyone
> pronounce it
> as [Or]. I can't imagine that that's actually the
> case;
> it's a very common pronunciation. The common
> non-rhotic
> counterpart is [O:].
>
> [...]
>
> > They also distinguish <poor> from <pore> and
> <hoarse> from
> > <horse>. I've lived in almost every region of the
> US and I
> > last herd this distinction from very old people
> when I was
> > a child, and their distinction was /pu@.../ vs.
> /por/,
> > /hu@.../ vs. /hors/ Any ideas?
>
> They're two completely different things. The
> <horse> -
> <hoarse> merger is almost universal; I'm not sure
> that I've
> actually noticed anyone who didn't have it, even in
> Massachusetts in 1955-60. As I understand it, the
> distinction is generally between <horse>
> [hOrs]~[hO:s] and
> <hoarse> [hors]~[ho&s]. Outside the south, the
> <poor> -
> <pore> merger is considerably less common in the
> U.S.
>
> Brian
>
>
>

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