Microbrew? I always thought a microbrew was the product of a microbrewery, a brewery that makes very small batches (but puts them into normal-sized bottles).
I guess now microbrew is to beer as espresso is to coffee.
MiB, it’s not common usage, in fact these characters are probably the only people ever to use “microbrew” to mean a tiny little serving of beer. That was the joke in general behind the whole series.
Ed and Phil, whaddya mean, “rhyme”? We think there is some difference in the pronunciations, specifically in the main vowel sound — but if there is a dialect where they have the same vowel sound there, the words will not just rhyme, they’ll be identical!
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I’m trying to imagine what the two different “fog” and “dog” vowels might be.
Mitch4 (6): In my head, I’m hearing a Bostonian pronounce “logger” with a back-of-the-throat “ah” sound, while my Midwestern upbringing made it more like “aw.”
I would guess that the fog/dog opposition is preserved all over the general U.S. English area! What would be unusual would be a dialect where it was neutralized! I don’t know where that is, but can sort of make the vowel in fog somewhat rounded (fawg) so it then would indeed rhyme dog — but where is that?
Based on the discussion in comments 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 regarding whether “lager” and “logger” (or “fog” and “dog”) rhyme or sound identical, the regional dialects of U.S. English that neutralize this opposition—meaning they pronounce fog and dog with an identical vowel sound—fall into a few primary categories:
The Western United States and Canada (The Cot-Caught Merger):
In these regions, the historical low back vowels /ɑ/ (as in father or cot) and /ɔ/ (as in thought or caught) have completely merged into a single vowel sound. Speakers from California, the Pacific Northwest, the broader West, and almost all of Canada pronounce words like fog and dog (as well as lager and logger) with the exact same vowel, rendering them identical in sound.
Pittsburgh and Parts of the Upper Midwest/New England:
Certain localized urban or regional accents—such as those found in Pittsburgh or specific parts of New England—also feature a merged or partially shifted low-back vowel system where words ending in -og or containing these open-back vowels align
.In contrast, the commenters from New York City, Long Island, and the Midwest (such as Boise Ed and Carl Fink in comments 3, 8, 10, and 11) retain a distinction, pronouncing words like fog (“fahg”) and dog (“dawg”) with different vowel sounds.
I’m pretty sure I pronounce “dog” and “fog” to rhyme — I grew up East Coast upper middle class, primarily the Delaware / rural PA area south of Philly, though I don’t talk Murder-Daughter
I also think I mostly pronounce “lager” and “logger” the same, even though my brain doesn’t think so. I also think my dialect doesn’t vary too much from my other East Coast upper middle class friends, like those who grew up in NYC or even Boston (Brookline).
It might be more accurate to say that the strip had a week of microbrew jokes (in 2015). Diamond Lil shifted to pure reruns over a year ago.
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Just to be clear, the aspect I didn’t catch right off was that “lager” and “logger” would be pronounced similarly enough to support a pun.
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I suppose that maybe a Boston accent would rhyme “lager” and “logger,” but I sure don’t.
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Ed, regionally, they may or may not rhyme. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger
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Microbrew? I always thought a microbrew was the product of a microbrewery, a brewery that makes very small batches (but puts them into normal-sized bottles).
I guess now microbrew is to beer as espresso is to coffee.
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MiB, it’s not common usage, in fact these characters are probably the only people ever to use “microbrew” to mean a tiny little serving of beer. That was the joke in general behind the whole series.
Ed and Phil, whaddya mean, “rhyme”? We think there is some difference in the pronunciations, specifically in the main vowel sound — but if there is a dialect where they have the same vowel sound there, the words will not just rhyme, they’ll be identical!
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Ah, right, identical, not rhyming per se! But yeah, that’s the cot/caught thing.
In my dad’s New York City/New England dialect, “fog” and “dog” had different vowels.
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I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I’m trying to imagine what the two different “fog” and “dog” vowels might be.
Mitch4 (6): In my head, I’m hearing a Bostonian pronounce “logger” with a back-of-the-throat “ah” sound, while my Midwestern upbringing made it more like “aw.”
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Ed, think “fahg” and “dawg”. Best I can do in print (well, could prolly use phonemic symbols, but I’d have to figure them out).
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@phsiii:
“In my dad’s New York City/New England dialect, “fog” and “dog” had different vowels.”
In my Long Island dialect, they still have different vowels. “Fahg” and “dawg”.
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I would guess that the fog/dog opposition is preserved all over the general U.S. English area! What would be unusual would be a dialect where it was neutralized! I don’t know where that is, but can sort of make the vowel in fog somewhat rounded (fawg) so it then would indeed rhyme dog — but where is that?
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Resorting to Google AI:
Based on the discussion in comments 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 regarding whether “lager” and “logger” (or “fog” and “dog”) rhyme or sound identical, the regional dialects of U.S. English that neutralize this opposition—meaning they pronounce fog and dog with an identical vowel sound—fall into a few primary categories:
The Western United States and Canada (The Cot-Caught Merger):
In these regions, the historical low back vowels /ɑ/ (as in father or cot) and /ɔ/ (as in thought or caught) have completely merged into a single vowel sound. Speakers from California, the Pacific Northwest, the broader West, and almost all of Canada pronounce words like fog and dog (as well as lager and logger) with the exact same vowel, rendering them identical in sound.
Pittsburgh and Parts of the Upper Midwest/New England:
Certain localized urban or regional accents—such as those found in Pittsburgh or specific parts of New England—also feature a merged or partially shifted low-back vowel system where words ending in -og or containing these open-back vowels align
.In contrast, the commenters from New York City, Long Island, and the Midwest (such as Boise Ed and Carl Fink in comments 3, 8, 10, and 11) retain a distinction, pronouncing words like fog (“fahg”) and dog (“dawg”) with different vowel sounds.
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I’m pretty sure I pronounce “dog” and “fog” to rhyme — I grew up East Coast upper middle class, primarily the Delaware / rural PA area south of Philly, though I don’t talk Murder-Daughter
I also think I mostly pronounce “lager” and “logger” the same, even though my brain doesn’t think so. I also think my dialect doesn’t vary too much from my other East Coast upper middle class friends, like those who grew up in NYC or even Boston (Brookline).
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