Words in the wrong context

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I sometimes listen to Dennis Miller's radio show and he's from Pittsburgh. The other day they had a halting discussion of caulk, halting because Miller doesn't pronounce the "l" in the word. It was comedy gold.

It took me a while to work out why this was funny. Some Americans pronounce caulk the same as another word that shouldn't be said on air in the USA. I pronounce these words differently (even though I do not pronounce the "l" in "caulk" either), so the significance wasn't immediately apparent.

Americans with the cot-caught vowel merger do sound pretty funny sometimes to those of us who distinguish these vowels.

Walk, wok.

* When you walk a dog, you put it on a lead and walk around with it for a while.
* When you wok a dog, you cut it into small strips and fry it in hot oil with vegetables.

Stir-fried Fido, anyone?