Date:  Tue, 12 Apr 1994 23:40:08 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ARIZVMS.BITNET>

Subject: Re: ink pen



Larry,

    No need to dispair totally. Synchrony can be separated from

Diachrony. A few Missouri folk did wander up to the Dakotas, and though

their offspring may have become phonologically acculturated, lexemes

could have been maintained in spite of the loss of the original matrix

from which they sprang. I suspect that "ink pen" is still most common

in the South and among Blacks who have moved to the North, which would

still support the theory of homonymy avoidance.