Date:  Tue, 12 Apr 1994 14:50:36 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: ink pen



A query related to the earlier extended discussion of Southern neutralization

of non-low front vowels before /n/: Is it the impression of those of you from

the relevant dialect area that the use of 'ink pen' for 'pen' is (a) a natural

or standard designation, and (b) one that is motivated (consciously or

unconsciously, synchronically or diachronically) by the avoidance of homonymy?

 That is, does the dialect area in which 'ink pen' is a standard locution

coincide more or less with that in which 'pen' and 'pin' merge? (I'm

referring to the spontaneous use of this collocation in discourse, not its

appearance as a repair phenomenon a la 'two-L llamas'.)

                  Thanks.

                    --Larry