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Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Noemon on June 06, 2005, 08:44:15 AM

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Noemon on June 06, 2005, 08:44:15 AM

There is an upcoming production of Steve Martin's play "The Underpants" at a local theater, and my local public radio station has been plugging it for the last couple of weeks.  The announcer invariably refers to it as "Steve Martin's bawdy play 'The Underpants'", but she pronounces "bawdy" exactly the same as she does the word "body".  It always throws me for a second.

Am I unusual in pronouncing these two words slightly differently?

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Jonathon on June 06, 2005, 09:46:52 AM

Unusual? No, not really. Though I believe it might be more common in the U.S. to rhyme the two. This phenomenon is generally referred to as the cot-caught merger. This Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot-caught_merger) has a lot more information on it.

So where are you from, Noemon?

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Noemon on June 06, 2005, 07:31:21 PM

I'm from NE Kansas (a tiny little place called Clinton, about a half hour from Lawrence, if that means anything to you).  I lived there for...oh, 30 years I guess, and have been living in Dayton, OH for the last three.

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Jonathon on June 06, 2005, 08:10:45 PM

Dialects never fail to surprise me. It's weird that you would have grown up in Nebraska pronouncing them differently and that you'd hear someone in eastern Ohio pronounce them the same.

Of course, I was completely surprised to learn that not everybody rhymed words like cot and caught or body and bawdy.

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: rivka on June 06, 2005, 08:26:36 PM

Cot and caught sounding alike is bad enough. But body and bawdy the same?

It's just WRONG, I tell you!

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Jonathon on June 06, 2005, 09:09:43 PM

Psh. Maybe I should change your title to Language Snob.  :P  

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: rivka on June 07, 2005, 06:34:41 AM

*laugh* Probably.

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: eslaine on June 07, 2005, 08:16:13 AM

What the george has your avatar got in its hands, rivka?

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Noemon on June 07, 2005, 09:14:44 PM

Quote

It's weird that you would have grown up in Nebraska pronouncing them differently and that you'd hear someone in eastern Ohio pronounce them the same.

I was very puzzled by this for a moment, but then I realized that you (completely reasonably) took the "NE" in "NE Kansas" to mean Nebraska rather than "north east".  What I meant was that I grew up near Lawrence, Kansas, which is located in the north eastern corner of the state.

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: Jonathon on June 08, 2005, 09:29:17 AM

D'oh! I know how to read. Promise.

But yeah, that's not so weird, then. Eastern Kansas is in the transitional zone of the merger.

Title: Body vs Bawdy
Post by: rivka on June 08, 2005, 10:44:49 PM

Quote

What the george has your avatar got in its hands, rivka?

Gold ribbon.