“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

Victor Hugo

The cot-caught merger: a dialectal difference and early literacy instruction

Language is always evolving, with new words (bingeable, superspreader), new expressions (I can’t even), and even shifting syntax (Have you any? vs Do you have any?) and grammar (the fading subjunctive: If I were…).  But the main topic of interest today is shifts in pronunciation.  The way we pronounce words changes slowly over time, often…


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