zompist bboard

["dIp.TQN]
Time for a trip to wiktionary. :E

edit: oh good, you can say it /p/ or /f/. I live in dread of commiting faux pas

Phonetic difference between the /D/s in that and breathe?

They're both /D/ but there's a qualitative difference that I can only describe as being more aspirated in the second one.

Unbelieveable, I put six eggs under a broody hen and they all developed (usually one or two don't), when they hatched five made it and one couldn't and died in the shell (always happens). I think that's very good odds! We usually end up with 3 or 4 from 6 eggs. Well, it's still early days, and after...

I have now tried to refer to a chair as 'seza' and rice as 'vary', because apparently it wasn't bad enough to constantly insert Ojibwe words into Japanese; I must also add Malagasy. The descent into gibberish continues. I asked a Spanish friend of mine " ¿Tienes red? " recently. I intended to ask h...

Travis B. wrote:Okay, now, how do you pronounce Oconomowoc? (Hint, you can pronounce it with either three or four different vowel phonemes, with the careful pronunciation having four.)

[ˌɒ.kʰə.ˈnɜʉ.mə.wɒk] would be my attempt.

Since learning Spanish, my default model for foreign languages is Spanish. That means every time I try to construct French or Catalan sentences, some Spanish grammar slips in, usually the use of prepositions.

What's odd is that the N is pronounced in "autumnal", "damnation", "solemnize", "hymnal", "columnist", but never pronounced in "damning", "hymned", "columned". In columist I don't say the /n/, and I'd be tempted to leave it out of solemnize (not a familiar word). Autumnal, damnation and hymnal do h...

Today I learnt (thank you marconatrix for the link): I'm unable to distinguish an alveopalatal lateral from /j/. Seriously, can't hear any lateral element there. Try as I might, I can't distinguish Spanish /ʎ/ from /j/. I know many Spaniards don't pronounce them differently, but my girlfirend says ...

autumn [ˈoː.tʰəm]
ocean [ˈɜʉ.ʃən]
oceanic [ɜʉ.ʃɪi̯.ˈæ.nɪ̈k]
comb [kʰɜʉm]
come [kʰɐm]

And approximately girlfriend's pronounciation:
ˈɔ.təm
ˈo.ʃən
o.ˈʃjä.nik
komb~kowm*
kʌm

*her reading and hearing interpretation, repectively.

Salmoneus wrote: I can't think of any coherent reason for it whatsoever.

I often think that of any marriage or civil union.

One thing I struggle with is I think I spend so much time with non-native English speakers, I think my grip on my mother tongue loosens a bit every day.

kʰən.ˈsɪ.dɜ

ˈpʰɐɪ̯.θən
ˈmɜʉ̯.dɛm

Okay, here's what I can figure out, I have a prince-prints merger, however, there is a slight difference (that probably breaks down in less careful speech):

prince [pʰʋɹɪn̻t̻s̻]

prints [pʰʋɹɪn̪t̪s̪]

Possibly because:

Laminal /s t/

Denti-alveolar /n z d l/

I think mines close to dental, but there is a slight difference of position between prints and prince, there's a merger, but not complete. I'll have to research these terms to figure it out a bit. I think it's because my /t/ is "not quite dental".

In the picture with the plastic cup she could look a bit Spanish. In fact, I reckon if that picture spoke she'd do it with a Penelope Cruz type accent.

When it comes to logic and elegance, nothing can beat the English spelling. Yeah, I've eaten my bread, and thought it through, although I'm tough I cough! JAL The curse of my surname. No one gets it right... "Mr. Broo, Brow, Broa..." "Bruff!" I don't mind if in Spain they call me /braf/ or /broug/,...

Mentally I always thought of it as [dɛɪ̯z] until just over a year ago when I looked it up and found [ˈdɛɪ̯.ɪ̈s] would be more appropriate for me.

This reminds me of hearth and fiery, which for a while I pronounced [hɜːθ] and [fɪə.ʋɹɪɨ̯] instead of [hɐːθ] and [fɐə̯ɜ̯.ʋɹɪɨ̯].

I know veritable , but I always thought it was a synonym of true or truly (or real/ly). I think I've only ever used it in the phrase "a veritable feast", exaggerating a posh accent so it's never part of my normal/serious speech. Possibly from a half-remembered reference to a film or something, but d...

When it comes to logic and elegance, nothing can beat the English spelling. Yeah, I've eaten my bread, and thought it through, although I'm tough I cough! JAL The curse of my surname. No one gets it right... "Mr. Broo, Brow, Broa..." "Bruff!" I don't mind if in Spain they call me /braf/ or /broug/,...

Another teacher I had was Egyptian and the th and dh become /s/ and /z/, which is even more confusing. That's not confusing for me. I grew up hearing exagerrated French accents on 'Allo 'Allo! It's all too natural. :mrgreen: I heard a /s/ and /z/ for every th and dh from her but okay Was she a Fren...

She apparently has vowel length difference in mal and mâle , but doesn't seem to contrast /a/ and /ɑ/, one being [mal] and the other [ma:l]. She's from Geneva, so maybe they still retain this vowel length in Switzerland. According to this article , Vaudois does have lengthening before e muet , as i...

As Linguoboy says, it sounds legalese. The packaging tries to express it in familiar terms. "Contains alcohol" would be something you find in the small print, not on the packaging to make something look cool and trendy.

The nasal vowels are okay, except for in intention or invention where I have to think too hard about each syllable. The front rounded are worse, specifically /œ/, which my girlfriend says I don't round my lips enough for (I say it closer to my NURSE vowel). And when /y/, /u/ and /ø/ appear too close...

Any words with too much of a mixture of /r ɾ l/ can get confusing for me. Palabra used to turn into parabra or palabla. And why must my theoretical knowledge of French phonetics be useless? I say something which should be phonetically correct, and then my girlfriend says "I don't understand a word y...

Or "It has alcohol!"