The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[Nortaneous]

Wiktionary says 'buy' was 'byen' in Middle English, so there probably never was a distinction.

English natives, what sounds do you associate with these words (a rhyming word would be useful)?
As in, what would you read them out loud?

ah, eh, ih, oh, uh
ɑ ɛ ɪ o ʌ

aw, ow, ew, ai, ay
ɔ æu̯ iu̯/ju ai̯ ei̯

ae, au, ei, ey, ie
ai̯ ɔ ei̯ ei̯ ai̯

oi, oe, oy, ou, ui, uy
oi̯ ou̯ oi̯ ou̯~æu̯ ʊi̯ ʊi̯/ai̯

X/Y means X if it looks like it's supposed to be an exclamation and Y otherwise

[finlay]

Don't any of you have ʌ then lol?

It's merged with ə in american

Not in all contexts I guess:

[baɪ.jaɪ.jaɪ.jaɪ]

You have a by-buy merger?

Yes, they're identical. Buoy is likewise identical to boy, and is the source of various punning jokes. If you have to distinguish it you would use a fake pronunciation based on the spelling like [bwɔɪ], but this is understood to be incorrect. The adjective buoyant, and the derived noun buoyancy are the same. [bɔjənt] or whatever.

Some people have used the notation /ʌɪ/ instead of /aɪ/, as far as I know. There's no English that has a distinction between the two (besides limited distributions in Canadian English which don't apply here); this is just preference of notation.

As for 'ey', in English this is usually /iː/, so I would prefer 'ay' as a "phonetic respelling" for /eɪ/.

[Thry]

?

Russia
Prussia
Russian
Prussian

[finlay]

Canonically /(p)rʌʃə(n)/, although in practice the two vowels have the same quality for me, something like [rɐʃɐ] or [rʌʃʌ]. ignore the r.

Again, puns are a wealthy source of knowledge here, as there are plenty of jokes which hinge on "Russian" and "rushin'" being homophonous.

[Thry]

Thanks!

[Nortaneous]

three
ambulance

[----]

[θɹʷiː]
[ʔɛ̃bjəɫɨnt͡s]

[Rin]

?

Russia
Prussia
Russian
Prussian

[ɹʌʃʌ]
[pʰɹʌʃʌ]
[ɹʌʃən]
[pʰɹʌʃən]

[Christopher Schröder]

?
Russia
Prussia
Russian
Prussian

Quick ~ Careful
[ɹʌʃə] ~ [ɹʌsʲjə]
[pɹʌʃə] ~ [pɹʌsʲjə]
[ɹʌʃə̃n] ~ [ɹʌsʲjə̃n]
[pɹʌʃə̃n] ~ [ɹʌsʲjə̃n]

I'm not quite sure how to transcribe it, but I certainly have something like a weak [j]-like Sound when I pronounce Words like that carefully, and the [s] is certainly palatal-ish without quite being [ʃ].

[finlay]

I think sʲj is a bit too much phonetic detail, as it's usually taken as given that your tongue will start to pronounce the j before the s is finished, which is essentially what the ʲ means.

[ol bofosh]

[ɹɐʃə]*
[pʰɹɐʃə]*
[ɹɐʃən]
[pʰɹɐʃən]

*the [ə] in these seems more open. Not enough to be [ɐ], so it could be I have [ɞ] here. But I'm not sure so I'll simplify it as [ə]. Probably the safer guess.

[θɹiː] (with [i:] I sometimes get the impression I'm saying [ɪi], same with [u:] might be [əu] or [ʊu]
[æmbjələns]

EDIT: I don't think I'm imagining it (but that's something all delusionals think...) but there is a difference between "get" and "pet", or so it seems.

[getʰ]
[pʰɛtʰ]

Anyone else get this?

[communistplot]

@treegod
See my post on the last page on palatalisation of velars before front vowels.

get would be something like [g_jhE?]
& pet something like [p_hE?]

[Travis B.]

three: /θri/ > [ˈθɹ̠͡ɰˤi(ː)]
ambulance: /ˈɛmbjəlɪns/ > [ˈɛ̃ːmbjəːɰɨ̃nts]
Russia: /ˈrʌʃə/ > [ˈɰˤʌʃə(ː)]
Prussia: /ˈprʌʃə/ > [ˈpʰɰˤʌʃə(ː)]
Russian: /ˈrʌʃɪn/ > [ˈɰˤʌʃɨ̃(ː)n]
Prussian: /ˈprʌʃɪn/ >[ˈpʰɰˤʌʃɨ̃(ː)n]

[Ulan]

?

Russia
Prussia
Russian
Prussian

/(p)ɹəʃə(n)/

My accents as interesting as a tin of saltines

[ol bofosh]

@treegod
See my post on the last page on palatalisation of velars before front vowels.

get would be something like [g_jhE?]
& pet something like [p_hE?]

That must be it, thanks! And now I know what palatisation is too.

[Herr Dunkel]

How do you go about pronouncing <this is definitely not for the faint of heart>, and what's your prosody like when you're saying it.

[Astraios]

That reminds me, I was going to ask about Nazi.

[Thry]

That reminds me, I was going to ask about Nazi.

['nɒ.tsi] I think I was told. Before I said ['na.zi] xD.

['na.Ti] natively of course.

[Herr Dunkel]

That reminds me, I was going to ask about Nazi.

[ziːk haɪl̠] - What's up with Normal German's lateral anyway? It appears somewhat palatalised, maybe somewhat laminal...

[Astraios]

['nɒ.tsi] I think I was told. Before I said ['na.zi] xD.

Huh well, both of those are incorrections AFAIK. xD

[Thry]

['nɒ.tsi] I think I was told. Before I said ['na.zi] xD.

Huh well, both of those are incorrections AFAIK. xD

correct me for good then xD

[Astraios]

But that'll spoil the question! Me and my sisters say [naʔsi]~[naʔzi] (i.e. /nætsi:/~/nætzi:/), but my mum had what should be /nɑ:tsi:/. So you could use any of those, I guess.

[Kezdő]

How do you go about pronouncing <this is definitely not for the faint of heart>, and what's your prosody like when you're saying it.

[ðɪʪ ɪʫ ˈdɛːfɪnɪʔli naʔ foɹ ðə ˈfɛɪnʔ əv haːɹt]
This is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Hmm, I use a lot more glottal stops than I thought...

[Travis B.]

Nazi: /ˈnatsi/ > [ˈnatsi(ː)]

[Radius Solis]

Wait what? Some people merge "boy" and "buoy"? Next it'll turn out that some varieties of English are strictly OVS and have phonemic ingressive epiglottals. Good god.

In the parts of this planet that I refer to as "Earth", boy rhymes with toy and soy, but buoy with chewy and gooey.