Return to Answer

##Misfits

Misfits

4. Monosyllabic words with the CUT vowel [ʌ]: won, son, ton, hon. Given that [ʌ] is just the way we write [ə] when it’s stressed, perhaps one might argue that this also counts as a reduction, but I’ll leave that task to others.

5. Imported words from Romance (mostly Spanish) that have retained the original GOAT vowel, [o]: garçon, soupçon, chaperon, rincon, reggaeton, chicharron, bodegon, maricon, melocoton, diallelon. The last syllable held a monophthong in the original languages; it remains so only in those English dialects that still have a monophthongal [o], including Scotland and the northern parts of the US both east and west. Other accents have a non-phonemic, very slight phonetic diphthong that’s often written [oʊ]. Fully assimilated words from Spanish that there ended in a stressed ‑ón become ‑oon in English, thus switching their vowel from /o/ to /u/, as in doubloon picaroon, quadroon.

6. I am not counting words that end in ‑oon like moon, noon, buffoon, cocoon, cartoon, afternoon, lagoon, baloon, baboon — because those always have stressed /u/ and never reduce.

4. Monosyllabic words with the CUT vowel [ʌ]: won, son, ton, hon. Given that [ʌ] is just the way we write [ə] when it’s stressed, perhaps one might argue that this also counts as a reduction, but I’ll leave that task to others.

5. Imported words from Romance (mostly Spanish) that have retained the original GOAT vowel, [o]: garçon, soupçon, chaperon, rincon, reggaeton, chicharron, bodegon, maricon, melocoton, diallelon. The last syllable held a monophthong in the original languages; it remains so only in those English dialects that still have a monophthongal [o], including Scotland and the northern parts of the US both east and west. Other accents have a non-phonemic, very slight phonetic diphthong that’s often written [oʊ]. Fully assimilated words from Spanish that there ended in a stressed ‑ón become ‑oon in English, thus switching their vowel from /o/ to /u/, as in doubloon, picaroon, quadroon.

6. I am not counting words that end in ‑oon like moon, noon, buffoon, cocoon, cartoon, afternoon, lagoon, baloon, baboon — because those always have stressed /u/ and never reduce.

However, for speakers living in the actual US state of Oregon, that word does reduce there, possibly even to the point of making it homophonous with organ. This caused light, humorous fiction when Garrison Keillor took his Lake Wobegon road-show to that state, since he naturally pronounces their city’s name differently in his accent than they do in theirs.

However, for speakers living in the actual US state of Oregon, that word does reduce there, possibly even to the point of making it homophonous with organ. This caused light, humorous friction when Garrison Keillor took his Lake Wobegon road-show to that state, since he naturally pronounces their city’s name differently in his accent than they do in theirs.