Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:17:12 EDT

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

Subject: Re: WAFT and the Principle of Linguistic Entropy



P.S. Why are we all assuming that the only possible spelling pronounciation of

"waft" would be the one used for "raft"? Given the existence of those other

"wa" words (and "qua" words) with "broad a", e.g. "wad", "what", "wasp",

"quaff", "waffle", etc., wouldn't it be possible that someone seeing "waft"

would look at the beginning as well as the end and guess that it would be pro-

nounced "wahft"? Would a Southerner unfamiliar with waffles (but familiar with

raffles) come up with "waeffle" as opposed to "wahffle" as the spelling pro-

nunciation? I'm not sure how explanatory this particular line of explanation

really is.



Larry