The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[Ziz]

Do any of you say "two days", "three days"... with an alveolar flap for the "d"? I can't type IPA on this computer...

Yap. Sure do.

[Travis B.]

How do you say the vowel in the following words? Included is my pronunciation;

Code: Select all

rather   [ɛ]
lather   [æ]
gather   [ɛ]
capture  [ɛ]
captain  [æ]
catch    [ɛ]
batch    [æ]

Ignoring elisions and vowel length, I have [ɛ] in all of those, corresponding to synchronic /ɛ/ and historical /æ/, except catch, which can also in everyday speech have [ɜ], corresponding to synchronic /ɜ/ and historical /ɛ/.

[faiuwle]

Actually, for the don't stuff, I've got a huge amount of variation depending on the context, and I don't think I could describe it all. For example:

"I don't." (in reference to some other predicate) - [ˈaɪˈdõt̚]
"I don't know." - [ˈaʊ̃ʔ]
"I don't know whether..." - [ˈɑɾə], or maybe [ˈɑɾə̃]
"I don't want/get/go..." - [ˈɑɾõ]

[finlay]

I probably most often have something like [æ̃ə̃nəʊ] for 'i don't know', which i might spell 'iunno' in informal writing like on here. Dunno really, it's too variable and hard to describe.

[Travis B.]

suggest: /sədˈdʒɜst/ > [səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜs̻ː] or, a bit more carefully, [səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜs̻t̻]
suɡɡests: /sədˈdʒɜsts/ > [səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜs̻ːː] or, more carefully, [səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜs̻t̻s̻]
suɡɡestion: /sədˈdʒɜstʃɪn/ > [səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜɕtɕɨ̃(ː)n]~[səːd̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊ɜɕtɕn̩(ː)]

(In all of these the [d̥̚ˈd̥ʒ̊] is a long voiceless lenis affricate where the stop component is long and is shared by two syllables.)

[finlay]

suggest: [sɵɡˈdʒɛst]
suɡɡests: [sɵɡˈdʒɛs] or, more carefully, [sɵɡˈdʒɛsts]
suɡɡestion: [sɵɡˈdʒɛʃtʃn̩]

yeah... this is the weird thing for me: people actually having a [g] in there...

even with travis's one you're sort of implying that you have the remnants of the [g] there prosodically or whatever, and it's assimilated to a geminate affricate. weird.

[Bedelato]

How do you say the vowel in the following words? Included is my pronunciation;

Code: Select all

rather   [ɛ]
lather   [æ]
gather   [ɛ]
capture  [ɛ]
captain  [æ]
catch    [ɛ]
batch    [æ]

I have /æ/ for all of those.

[ratammer]

There's /ɑ/ in <rather> for me. And /æ/ for all the rest.

Same here, I think.

[Travis B.]

even with travis's one you're sort of implying that you have the remnants of the [g] there prosodically or whatever, and it's assimilated to a geminate affricate. weird.

Yeah, my dialect is quite conservative with regard to consonant quantity in cluster assimilation/reduction, with the exceptions of coda /n/ elision before another consonant, where it normally does not conserve quantity but sometimes still does, and consonant affrication by following /j/, where the /j/ is not infrequently lost without quantity being conserved.

In threads like these, in cases where cluster assimilation/reduction has taken place or even where morphological geminates have historically been present, I not infrequently have geminates where I see many others who lack them. In these cases, pronouncing the words in question without the geminates is perfectly understandable and even often not too unfamiliar to hear but feels wrong to actually say and seems like something that is foreign to my own dialect.

[finlay]

I just find the fact that some Americans pronounce the extra G (which you essentially do) astounding... because to me it's just [sədʒɛst]

Ooh, how about exaggerate?

[Bob Johnson]

I just find the fact that some Americans pronounce the extra G (which you essentially do) astounding... because to me it's just [sədʒɛst]

Yeah, here too, something like [səɡ̚ˈdʒɛs(t)]. Your way sounds as British as a [kʊp] of tea.

(The (t) is dropped sometimes, and moves to the next syllable some other times -- <suggest you> [səɡ̚ˈdʒɛs.tʲçuː] etc. It's variable.)

Not sure about <exaggerate> other than there's no [ɡ̚]. My vowel/consonant length sense is refusing to work here.

[----]

How do you guys pronounce:
middle
milk
mill
mall
mild
(I'm wondering about how you guys realize /l/'s in certain situations)

My pronunciations are:
[mɪɾɫ̩]
[mɪɯ̯k]
[mɪʟ]
[mɒː]
[maɪɫd̚]

[Travis B.]

I just find the fact that some Americans pronounce the extra G (which you essentially do) astounding... because to me it's just [sədʒɛst]

Ooh, how about exaggerate?

exaggerate: /ɪɡˈzɛdʒərˌet/ > [ɨːɡ̊ˈz̥ɛːd̥ʑ̥ʁ̩ˤːˌʁˤeʔ]

No, no long consonants here...

[makvas]

exaggerate?

[ɨgˈzæ.dʒɹ̩ˌɛjt̚]

[Jetboy]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

[Travis B.]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

No.

As for a complete answer about how I pronounce /l/, I might as well track down the big post covering it all (well, most of it) I made a bit of a ways back... Can we say it has a lot of allophony, affecting many different environments...

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

Only if it's in the onset of a syllable, I think.

[makvas]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

I have [l] before vowels, [ɫ] between vowels, and [ʟ] after vowels. So when /l/ is after a vowel but not before a vowel, then there is no contact.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

I have [l] before vowels, [ɫ] between vowels, and [ʟ] after vowels. So when /l/ is after a vowel but not before a vowel, then there is no contact.

Now that you mention it I seem to have something odd that shifts from [ʟ] to [ɫ] when it's between vowels, but only sometimes... (tongue contact is delayed a bit, at least it seems that way. "Caller" has this, as does "collar", "color" does not, it's just [l] there. Maybe it depends on the initial vowel?)

[TallaFerroXIV]

middle [mɪdl]
milk [mɪɫk̚]
mill [mɪl]
mall [mɑɫ]
mild [mɑɪld̚]

exaggerate [eg'zædʒəɹe:t̚]

[finlay]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

yeah. except in coda position where it is oftentimes just [w] or [o].

eg milk is usually something like [mɪwk] or [mɪok]

varies on how posh or silly i want to sound or sometimes if I'm talking really slowly; in these cases i'm also more likely to pronounce a light L, too.

[spats]

I just find the fact that some Americans pronounce the extra G (which you essentially do) astounding... because to me it's just [sədʒɛst]

Ooh, how about exaggerate?

somewhat loosely transcribed:

Suggest = [sɨg'ʤɛst]
Exaggerage = [ɨg'zæ.ʤɨ.ɹet]

[spats]

Here's a phoneme pronunciation question:
When you pronounce /l/, does your tongue actually make contact with the roof of your mouth or your teeth in any postion?

My /l/ is always a pharyngealized dental or interdental lateral approximant, except immediately before or after alveolars, where it assimilates POA. Otherwise, it is articulated at roughly the same place as /θ/, /ð/. I did not realize this until today.

Also, in rapid speech, postvocalically, the tongue may not quite touch the tips of the teeth, but I would never say that I vocalize the consonant.

In broad terms, I would just say I have [ɫ] everywhere for /l/.

middle ['mɪ.dɫ̩]
milk [mɪɫk]
mill [mɪɫ]
mall [mɒɫ]
mild ['maɪ̯.ɫ̩d]

Not very interesting, I know.

[Travis B.]

Still reckon that the pronunciation with in 'obvious' is some kind of spelling pronunciation.

eh?

From Latin obvius (“being in the way so as to meet, meeting, easy to access, at hand, ready, obvious”) < ob- (“before”) + via (“way”).

Um, yeah, etymology, whatever. Like the word 'often', I was under the impression that most people had lost the /[t]. Like if someone says /ɒbviəs/ or /ɒftən/, to me it sounds like they're a. putting extra emphasis on the word, b. trying too hard and c. being a pretentious git. So... yeah.

Or maybe I'm the pretentious git, I dunno. It's worth noting that the pronunciation without b/t is the one that I'd teach to foreign learners.

Hmm....

About obvious, I was not familiar with the /b/ being there as a spelling pronunciation. And while I normally pronounce it without a or like, my [vː] therein clearly reflects a historical /bv/, whereas you just have a short [v], which may or may not considering that your English does not normally conserve consonant quantity (well) it seems. (Cambridge Advanced Learner's dictionary has /bv/ in obvious, but this really says nothing about it historically; too bad I have no access to the OED myself.)

As for often, pronouncing it with a /t/ bugs me to no end, as it just screams "I am spelling-pronouncing!" in addition to being foreign to my dialect...

[makvas]

Suggest = [sɨg'ʤɛst]

Are you sure on that [g]? Seems like a spelling pronunciation to me.