1220: Eggcorns are Phonemic (Often) Apr 12, 2018

A few examples of eggcorns (i.e. errors in phonetic-/spelling-reproduction that still make some sense) vary from the original phrase because of voicing. For instance, "nip it in the butt" rather than "...bud" or “old-timer’s disease” instead of "Alzheimer's disease" hinge upon [t]/[d]; the only difference between those two sounds is that the vocal cords vibrate for [d], but everything else is the same. Looking over many lists of eggcorns available online, there is a noticeable trend of eggcorns which only deviate from the original word or phrase by one sound, making them what linguists call a minimal pair. Other common sounds that are the source for these mishearings is [n]/[m], such as with 'medium strip' instead of 'median strip'.

To see some hypothetical Word Facts, visit Patreon.com/wordfacts. Check out the Youtube too: https://youtu.be/Kgg5P7IIzvk