Date:  Tue, 12 Apr 1994 13:25:00 MST

From:  Garland Bills <GBILLS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UNMB.BITNET>

Subject: Re: ink pen



Responding to Larry Horn's query, my dialect (North Texas, NOT a Valley boy)

merges /I/ and /E/ before nasals (not just /n/ -- and these lax vowels do

not occur before the velar nasal, by the way), and I have never used 'ink

pen'. If disambiguation is needed I would likely say 'writing p_n'

(stereotypically contrasted with a 'sticking p_n') or some circumlocution

such as 'what you write with'. So for me, only repair; no 'ink pin'.

Garland Bills

University of New Mexico

gbills[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]bootes.unm.edu