Justfolk's photos with the keyword: 23915-649-1bw

The Dirty Oar

09 Sep 2023 1 79
English speakers in much of Fortune Bay have what linguists call "non-phonemic H" which means that the H-sound comes and goes according to rules that have little to do with spelling, and more to do with prosody, style, humour and so on. It's not truly "H-lessness" but rather that H's are a tool for speakers that does not exist for speakers of Standard English. Thus the words oar and whore can be, though don't have to be, homonyms. I expect the owner of this boat knew what he (or she) was doing in naming it. And my friend Gerry appreciated the joke, extending it a little by taking a cellphone picture with the local Anglican church looming over the boat's name.