The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[spats]

I don't [əɪ̯ɾõ?]
you don't [jəɾõ?]
he doesn't [hiɾʌzn?]
she doesn't [ʃiɾʌzn?]
it doesn't [ɪd̥ʌzn?]
we don't [wiɾõ?]
you guys don't [jɒldõ?]
they don't [ðeɾõ?]
I didn't [əɪ̯ɾɪn?]
you didn't [jəɾɪn?]
he didn't [hiɾɪn?]
she didn't [ʃiɾɪn?]
it didn't [ɪd̥ɪn?]
we didn't [wiɾɪn?]
you guys didn't [jɒldɪn?]
they didn't [ðeɾɪn?]

Alveolar flaps can become approximants in fast speech.

[finlay]

My /s z/ are very articulatorily similar to [ç ʝ], except I somehow manage to make them sibilants, by raising my tongue slightly closer to my palate than with [ç ʝ].

That's a pretty textbook description of [ɕ ʑ].

[Risla]

My /s z/ are very articulatorily similar to [ç ʝ], except I somehow manage to make them sibilants, by raising my tongue slightly closer to my palate than with [ç ʝ].

That's a pretty textbook description of [ɕ ʑ].

sigh. Need me to record something?

[Ziz]

Are there any Spanish speakers that debuccalize /s/ before [j] (as in, pronounce words like espacio as [ehˈpahjo])? Sometimes I do that when I'm speaking to people who debuccalize /s/ in the coda and I'm wondering if it's natural for some people or if it just sounds weird.

Also, just out of curiosity, is there anybody that has /k/ in acknowledge or /dʒ/ in vegetable? For me, they're [ɪɡˈnɑ̟lɪdʒ] and [ˈvɛtʃtəbʟ̩].

[Risla]

Okay, here's a recording. Not [ɕ].

[makvas]

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]

[Ziz]

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]

All have [æ] for me.

[Bristel]

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]

All have [æ] for me.

All but one (catch) is [æ]. The catch vowel is [æ~ɛ] for me.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

All but one (catch) is [æ]. The catch vowel is [æ~ɛ] for me.

Same here, trending towards [ɛ] for catch.

[adder]

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

[finlay]

Okay, here's a recording. Not [ɕ].

interesting. you don't particularly sound like you have a speech impediment to me. But you did just describe how to make [ɕ] earlier.

[finlay]

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

Code: Select all

rather   [ɻaːðɚ], [ɻɑːðɚ]
lather   [laˑðɚ]
gather   [g̊aˑðɚ]
capture  [kʰaʔp̚tʃɚ]
captain  [kʰaʔp̚tʰn]
catch    [kʰaʔtʃ]
batch    [b̥aʔtʃ]

rather either rhymes with lather and gather, or takes [ɑ], mainly because if I say the word I'm generally being a bit pretentious and change my accent slightly to suit.

The word I want to ask about is suggest, as well as suggests and suggestion.

[Ziz]

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

[linguoboy]

All but one (catch) is [æ]. The catch vowel is [æ~ɛ] for me.

Same, except that I don't think I ever have anything as low as [æ] in catch. Ketch was another bit of eye-dialect I never understood, like git or dawg. I mean, how else would anybody say these words?

I'm trying to put together a list of words with /oh/ in BrE but /ow/ in AmE. So far I have:

homosexual
yoghurt
risotto

but I know I've heard others.

[spats]

All but one (catch) is [æ]. The catch vowel is [æ~ɛ] for me.

Same, except that I don't think I ever have anything as low as [æ] in catch. Ketch was another bit of eye-dialect I never understood, like git or dawg. I mean, how else would anybody say these words?

I'm trying to put together a list of words with /oh/ in BrE but /ow/ in AmE. So far I have:

homosexual
yoghurt
risotto

but I know I've heard others.

I have [E] in "catch", "can" (to be able to, not a metal tin), and "parents" but all the rest that I can think of are short a.

I also have a short a split, so "have" and "halve" are (marginally) different (the second vowel is longer and tenser).

[----]

suggest [sɘd͡ʒɛst]
suggests [sɘd͡ʒɛst͡s]
suggestion [sɘd͡ʒɛɕt͡ɕn̩]

I have /æ/ for all of those words except catch which turns out to be just slightly different enough from the norm for me to tell the difference, it's not quite /ɛ/ but certainly isn't /æ/ either.

[finlay]

homosexual
yoghurt
risotto

First one is usually a GOAT vowel, sometimes a LOT vowel; second is well known to vary within Britain often idiosyncratically between GOAT and LOT – at least, if there's a geographical pattern, I don't know what it is; third one I've never heard with a GOAT vowel.

[linguoboy]

homosexual
yoghurt
risotto

First one is usually a GOAT vowel, sometimes a LOT vowel

So perhaps /oh/ here is first and foremost an RP phenom? Is the same true of other words with the homo- prefix? Do any of the other Classical prefixes vary similarly?

[Astraios]

First one is usually a GOAT vowel, sometimes a LOT vowel;

I have a schwa normally, and a GOAT if I'm being careful. With a LOT it sounds American.

[Bob Johnson]

/oh/ in BrE but /ow/ in AmE

What is that supposed to mean? Don't you know IPA?

I assume you're not suggesting we say /jaʊɡɚt/...

[tezcatlip0ca]

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

[finlay]

/oh/ in BrE but /ow/ in AmE

What is that supposed to mean? Don't you know IPA?

I assume you're not suggesting we say /jaʊɡɚt/...

They're lazy annotations sometimes used by people who can't be bothered with IPA (i mean, real linguists use them too) but i find them very confusing for exactly that reason – 'oh' can only be pronounced with a GOAT vowel rather than a LOT vowel, and 'ow' suggests a MOUTH vowel.

[linguoboy]

/oh/ in BrE but /ow/ in AmE

What is that supposed to mean? Don't you know IPA?

Don't you know Trager-Smith phonemic vowel notation? Apparently not.

They're lazy annotations sometimes used by people who can't be bothered with IPA

Or, you know, people with an actual linguistics background who understand the phonemic analysis undergirding them. Lemme tell you all how not tiresome it is to get grief EVERY SINGLE TIME I dare to use a notational system which has been accepted and used by leading American dialectologists for over half a century.

[faiuwle]

Don't you know Trager-Smith phonemic vowel notation? Apparently not.

I've never heard of it either, and the only thing I can find on google that actually has symbols and what they mean has to do with scansion. What do you mean by /ow/? I've certainly never heard anything other than a GOAT vowel for all of those words in AmE.

[Bedelato]

1. How do you pronounce "closer"?
2. How do you pronounce "cuneiform"?
3. How do you pronounce hair, her and heir?
4. How do you pronounce
factory
factorial
century
centurion
victory
victorious
restaurant
restauranteur
history
historical
mystery
mysterious
interest
interesting
interestingly
?
5. How do you pronounce "plosive"?

1. [ˈkʰlœʉsɻ̩] /ˈkləus.əɹ/
2. ['kʰj̊ʉnɪ̈foɻʷˤm] /kju.nɪ.foɹm/
3. [heɻˠ hɻ̩ˠ eɻˠ] /heɹ həɹ eɹ/
4.
[ˈfæktɻ̩ɨ] /ˈfæk.təɹ.i/
[fækˈtʰo˞ɻʷˤɨl̩ˤ] /fækˈtoɹ.i.əl/
[ˈsɛnt͡ʃɻ̩ˠɨ] /ˈsɛn.t͡ʃəɹ.i/
[sɛnˈt͡ʃʰɻ̩ˠɨən] /sɛnˈt͡ʃəɹ.i.ən/
[ˈvɪktɻ̩ɨ] /ˈvɪk.təɹ.i/
[vɪkˈtʰo˞ɻʷˤɨəs] /vɪkˈtoɹ.i.əs/
[ˈɻɛst͡ʃɻɑ̃nt] /ˈrɛs.t͡ʃɹɑnt/
[ˌɻɛst͡ʃɻɑ̃nˈtʉɻ] /ˌrɛs.t͡ʃɹɑnˈtʰʉ.əɹ/ ¹
[ˈhɪstɻ̩ˠɨ] /ˈhɪs.təɹ.i/
[hɪsˈtoɻʷˤɪ̈kl̩ˤ] /hɪsˈtoɹ.ɪ.kəl/
[ˈmɪstɻ̩ˠɨ] /ˈmɪs.təɹ.i/
[mɪsˈti˞ɻˠɨəs] /mɪsˈtiɹ.i.əs/
[ˈɪnt͡ʃɻəst] /ˈɪn.t͡ʃɹəst/²
[ˈɪnt͡ʃɻəstɨŋ] /ˈɪn.t͡ʃɹəs.tiŋ/ ³
[ˈɪnt͡ʃɻəstɨŋlɨ] /ˈɪn.t͡ʃɹəs.tiŋ.li/

5. [pʰlœʉsɪv] /pləusɪv/

(Note the presence or absence of syllabic diacritics on the ɻ's. They're kinda hard to spot with a lot of fonts, since that stupid descender takes up a lot of room and a lot of apps like to clip text lines for some reason...)
Syncope in three-syllable words is not that common for me for some reason. The retention of three syllables in "factory", "history", and the like is typical of American English, but there's one case where I stand out here: "Family" is three syllables IMI, when everyone around me says it with two. "Interest" is the only one in the above list that got syncopated.

¹ This isn't exactly in my everyday lexicon but it's still interesting. Particularly that "-eur" suffix. It's clearly not /uɹ/ (as in "moor", where the vowel is backed to before a liquid as expected in my idiolect); I analyzed it here as similar to the sound in "doer" /du.əɻ/, where the /u/ retains its fronting.
² Sometimes the /ɹ/ will become syllabic in fast speech.
³ I'm not sure whether the [ɨ] in [-ɨŋ] is an allophone of /i/ or /ɪ/. It's in complementary distribution with both of them.
_________________

I don't
you don't
he doesn't
she doesn't
it doesn't
we don't
you guys don't
they don't
I didn't
you didn't
he didn't
she didn't
it didn't
we didn't
you guys didn't
they didn't

[ɐɨdœ̃ʉ̃n̥t]¹
[jʉdœ̃ʉn̥t]
[hidʌzɘ̃nt]
[ʃidʌzɘ̃nt]
[ɪt̚dʌzɘ̃nt]
[widœ̃ʉn̥t]
[jʉgɐɨzdœ̃un̥t]
[ðeɨdœ̃un̥t]

[ɐɨdɪdⁿn̩t]
[jʉdɪdⁿn̩t]
[hidɪdⁿn̩t]
[ʃidɪdⁿn̩t]
[ɪt̚dɪdⁿn̩t]
[widɪdⁿn̩t]
[jʉgɐɨzdɪdⁿn̩t]
[ðeɨdɪdⁿn̩t]

These are in careful speech. In fast speech the first /d/ tends to be flapped and the final /t/ tends to be unreleased.

¹ At least, I'm pretty sure there's an /n/ in here...