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From: rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Chain Shift (was Tendency of Inflections to Disappear)
Message-ID: <rdd-2807962049350001@dmn1-12.usa1.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 20:49:35 -0500
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <4tac7o$r22@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu> <rte-2607961224140001@135.25.40.118> <rdd-2607961343260001@dmn1-39.usa1.com> <Dv682n.J5o@midway.uchicago.edu> <rdd-2707961804340001@dmn1-13.usa1.com> <4tg7as$gh8@news4.digex.net>
Lines: 27

In article <4tg7as$gh8@news4.digex.net>, kcivey@cpcug.org (Keith C. Ivey) wrote:

> rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin) wrote:
> 
> >I love these discussions of phonology; they turn up such 
> >interesting tidbits! ("Worry" rhymes with "story" for me, 
> >does it for you?)
> 
> I'm curious:  Is this a one-word exception in your idiolect, or
> do you also rhyme "word" with "sword", "worth" with "north",
> "worm" with "dorm", and so on?

Well, I never thought of it as an exception, but in the context of your
other examples of <wor>, I suppose it must be. (I posted "'wurry' for
'worry'" to the "Common Mispronunciations" thread and no one complained.)

> Does anyone else around you pronounce "worry" that way?

My family, certainly. I always rather assumed everyone else did too, but I
can't say I was particularly listening. I was alerted to the alternative
by a statement I read that "speakers of such-and-such a dialect use
such-and-such a vowel in words such as 'hurry', 'furry', and 'worry'."
This assertion puzzled me severely, because I use three different vowels
in those three words.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

