The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[Sumelic]

[fẽ̞ə̯̃n vẽ̞ə̯̃n]

Are those supposed to be creaky voice markers? I can't imagine a True Scotsman nasalizing everything he says.

No, the IPA symbol for creaky voice is a tilde below. The tilde above represents nasalization. Like most English speakers, I have anticipatory nasalization of vowels preceding nasal consonants.

[Salmoneus]

[fẽ̞ə̯̃n vẽ̞ə̯̃n]

Are those supposed to be creaky voice markers? I can't imagine a True Scotsman nasalizing everything he says.

No, the IPA symbol for creaky voice is a tilde below. The tilde above represents nasalization. Like most English speakers, I have anticipatory nasalization of vowels preceding nasal consonants.

To me, that sound like a very American (or lower-class) thing.

[Pole, the]

Does anyone here merge “summing” and “something”?

[Viktor77]

Does anyone here merge “summing” and “something”?

Not IMD. We typically reduce "something" to [sV~?'.m?n] (Oh God I have no idea how to actually show that). My mouth is closed for the entire last syllable in a mhm fashion.

[Travis B.]

I normally pronounce something as [ˈsʌ̃mpθɘ̃(ː)(n)] in everyday speech.

[finlay]

First:
fan vs van
thigh vs thy
few vs view
seine vs zain
place you
because we
Second:
I've seen Echobeat's location set to Edinburgh. It came to my mind to ask if the Wikipedia's article about Scottish English vowels is right, so I asked them and they said they hasn't grew there. If anyone from Scotland can tell me about the general phonology, could you?

with the caveat that my accent is posh, watered down by years of living in england and then teaching english in japan, most people mistake it for either rp or american depending on who i've been talking to recently

generally, more monophthongal than other englishes, notably for /e/ and /o/ which are close to the cardinal vowels but quite tense. /u/ is fronted more like [ʉ] or [y] - this happens in a lot of other accents too but noticeable in scotland. rhotic accent unlike england

merger of trap-bath-palm as /a/ and of lot-thought as /ɔ/ but distinction of north-force /ɔr/~/or/

the vowel length thing we do that others don't is that we lengthen vowels before voiced fricatives and /r/ but not before other voiced consonants. so in england there's a distinction in length between meat [miˑt] and mead [miːd] (i suppose actually many people have an offglide like [mɪid]) but in scotland it's [mit] vs [mid]. but in scotland there's lengthening at the end of words too, and this is preserved when we add suffixes, so there's a classic minimal pair in brood [brud] vs brewed [bruːd] (the second word has a morpheme boundary) - well as i say is actually probably [ʉ] but you get the drift.

as for your words:
[fan van θɑˑɪ ðɑˑɪ fjʉː vjʉː seːn zeːn pʰɫes/pʰles jʉː/jə bɘkʰɔz/bɪkʰɒz wiː]

[Travis B.]

Do you distinguish /ɛr ɪr ʌr/ where /r/ falls in a coda position?

(I was watching Shetland and the characters did that, most notably consistently pronouncing person with an [ɛr].)

I also thought Scottish English had allophonic lengthening before some, but not all, lenis obstruents.

[Pole, the]

Do you distinguish /ɛr ɪr ʌr/ where /r/ falls in a coda position?

(I was watching Shetland and the characters did that, most notably consistently pronouncing person with an [ɛr].)

Hmm, I think I have noticed unshaven David Tennant in “Broadchurch” pronouncing /ɛr/ as somewhat German-ish /eɐ/.

[Travis B.]

Do you distinguish /ɛr ɪr ʌr/ where /r/ falls in a coda position?

(I was watching Shetland and the characters did that, most notably consistently pronouncing person with an [ɛr].)

Hmm, I think I have noticed unshaven David Tennant in “Broadchurch” pronouncing /ɛr/ as somewhat German-ish /eɐ/.

Which is odd because it is combining Scottish vowels - except [e] does seem a wee bit tense there, but I onno, since I am not that familiar with Scottish English - with un-Scottish non-rhoticism.

[jmcd]

Do you distinguish /ɛr ɪr ʌr/ where /r/ falls in a coda position?

(I was watching Shetland and the characters did that, most notably consistently pronouncing person with an [ɛr].)

I also thought Scottish English had allophonic lengthening before some, but not all, lenis obstruents.

It's generally more before voiced fricatives, word endings and /r/.

[finlay]

Do you distinguish /ɛr ɪr ʌr/ where /r/ falls in a coda position?

(I was watching Shetland and the characters did that, most notably consistently pronouncing person with an [ɛr].)

I also thought Scottish English had allophonic lengthening before some, but not all, lenis obstruents.

in my "native" accent i probably would distinguish /ɛr/ but the other two would be /ər/, and also i don't roll my r's as much as is stereotypical, so it's more like [ɻ̩] or [ɚ] or whatever. but again this is one of the features that 'falls out' of my accent easily, especially when teaching english, but one that i'd easily pick up again if i talk to other scots. i occasionally hear an /ɛrli/ for early out of my mouth, so it's still there. i also had a scottish coworker last year so i'd spontaneously start speaking more scottish-ly around him.

[Travis B.]

little
middle
probably
able to
over
rather
other
matter
latter
mirror
winter
maybe
lady
city
(I) am going to
(I) have got to
I don't
he doesn't
they didn't

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

worm
church
mouth (n)
mouth (v)
work
be
beer
bear
Some of these are for finlay, some for Imralu and/or other Australians. Also, Travis, wouldn't you mind "filling in" my previous list?

[Travis B.]

fan [fɛ̃(ː)(n)]
van [vɛ̃(ː)(n)]
thigh [θa(ː)e̯]
thy [ða(ː)e̯]
few [fjʉ̯u(ː)]
view [vjʉ̯u(ː)]
seine [sɜ̃(ː)(n)]
zain [zẽ(ː)(n)]
place you [ˈpʰɰeʃʉ̯u(ː)]
because we [kʰʌːsʲwi(ː)]

[Travis B.]

BTW, Diego, were you trying to see whether I devoice initial fricatives? Because no, I prevocalically only devoice plosives, not all obstruents.

[Znex]

Travis:
little ['lɪɾʊ]
middle ['mɪɾʊ]
probably ['pʰɻʷɔb̚li]
able to ['ɛɪ̯bʊ]
over ['əʉ̯vɐ]
rather ['ɻʷɐ:ðɐ]
other ['ɐðɐ]
matter ['mæɾɐ]
latter ['læɾɐ]
mirror [mɪ˞ə]
winter ['wɪ̃ʔnɐ]
maybe ['mɛɪ̯bi]
lady ['lɛɪ̯ɾi]
city ['sɪɾi]
I am going to [ɐ̃ɪ̯m gɔ̃nɐ]
I have got to [ɐɪ̯v gɔɾɐ]
I don't [ɐɪ̯ də̃ʉʔ]
he doesn't [hi 'dɐ(z)n̩ʔ]
they didn't [ðɛɪ̯ dɪ̃(ʔ)n̩ʔ]

Diego:
worm [wø̃ːm]
church [tʃʰøˑtʃ]
mouth (n) [mæo̯θ]
mouth (v) [mæˑo̯ð]
work [wøˑk]
be [bɪi̯]
beer [bɪə̯]
bear [beˑ]

[Travis B.]

Just for the record, I am really interested in other North Americans giving pronunciations for my previous list, and particularly how they pronounce them in informal, connected speech.

[spanick]

Just for the record, I am really interested in other North Americans giving pronunciations for my previous list, and particularly how they pronounce them in informal, connected speech.

I'll try to get around to it today when I have some time to think about it. My transcriptions will probably be quite broad compared to yours.

[Pole, the]

“unelected”
“an elected”

[Zaarin]

I'll give it ago. My dialect is rather eclectic: my parents are from upstate New York, I was born in Arizona, I spent most of my first six years in a Northern enclave in the South, spent two years in an international school in Korea, and spent my teenage years onward in a cosmopolitan Florida city with a large population of Northerners, Canadians, and Europeans. My dialect seems to get regularly pegged as Northwestern, though I'm not sure what feature would cause that.

little [ɫɪɾɫ̩]
middle [mɪɾɫ̩]]
probably [pɹ̱ʷˁɑbəbɫi] (in casual speech: [pɹ̱ʷˁɑbɫi]
able to [ˈɛɪ̯bɫ̩ˌtʰu]
over [ɔʊ̯vɹ̩ˁ]*
rather [ɹ̱ʷˁæðɹ̩ˁ]
other [ɐðɹ̩ˁ]
matter [mæɾɹ̩ˁ]
latter [ɫæɾɹ̩ˁ]
mirror [mɪɹ̱ˁɹ̩ˁ]?
winter [wɪntɹ̩ˁ~wɪnɾɹ̩ˁ]
maybe [ˈmɛɪ̯bi]
lady [ɫɛɪ̯ɾi]
city [sɪɾi]
am going to [ɛmˈgɔɪ̯ŋˌtʰɐ] (reduction of /æ ɪ/ to [ɛ] is inconsistent but not unusual for me, also occurs in and, since, and milk in all positions)
have got to [hæv ˈgɑɾə]
I don't [aɪ̯ dɔʊ̯nʔ]*
he doesn't [hi dɐzn̩ʔ]
they didn't [ðɛɪ̯ dɪʔn̩ʔ~ðɛɪ̯ dɪʔn̩ɾ V]

*I've begun to suspect that my /oː/ is not actually [ɔʊ̯]; maybe something more like [ʌʊ̯] or [ɤ̞ʊ̯]. The first element is definitely unrounded but not central.


unelected [ɐnəˈɫɛktʰɪd]
an elected [æn iˈɫɛktʰɪd]

[spanick]

little [lɪˀɫ̩]
middle [mɪˀɾɫ̩]
probably [pɹɑːbɫi]
able [ɛɪbɫ̩ tʰʉ]
over [oʊvɚ]
rather [ɹæəðɚ]
matter [mæːɾɚ]
latter [læːɾɚ]
mirror [mʲɪːʴ]
winter [wɪ̃ˀnɚ]
maybe [mɛɪbi]
lady [lɛɪˀɾi]
city [sɪˀɾi]
(I) am going to [ɐmgʌ̃nːə]
(I) have goto [ˀɐvgɑɾə]
I don’t [ɐˀõnʔ˺]
He doesn’t [hi dʌznʔ˺]
They didn’t [ðɛɪ dɪ̃ˀnʔ˺]

[Travis B.]

unelected: [ˌʌ̃ːnəːˈʟ̞ɜʔktɘːt]
an elected: [ɘ̃ːnəːˈʟ̞ɜʔktɘːt], stressed [ˌɛ̃ːnəːˈʟ̞ɜʔktɘːt]

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

BTW, Diego, were you trying to see whether I devoice initial fricatives? Because no, I prevocalically only devoice plosives, not all obstruents.

Well, I admit I expected it. I have difficulties imagining devoicing stops but not fricatives.
Wait, I very often devoice and aspirate voiced stops. Kinda hypocritical .

[Zaarin]

little [lɪˀɫ̩]
middle [mɪˀɾɫ̩]
winter [wɪ̃ˀnɚ]
lady [lɛɪˀɾi]
city [sɪˀɾi]

Creaky vowels or preglottalized consonants? (...or both?) I had a professor who had notably creaky vowels, hence the question.

[Travis B.]

The superscript ˀ reminds me of the notation (involving such) often used to mark the stød... the thing is, phonetically, I don't know what it means.