On the pronunciation of English -ing

[schwhatever]

Yeah, I have [e] or [eI] (not sure) in Genghis Kahn and penguin (although I'd understand some one who used for the last one).

[Bedelato]

But Bedelato, why are you so ambiguous about where you are from here? NAE varieties are not nearly as homogeneous as you may think they are; saying you are from the US is not saying much here at all.

Because, clearly, we are all stalkers who only want to find and CENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSORED with rivets.

Somewhat. Maybe not you guys, but who knows what our friend Google might bring in

[finlay]

Protip: A state would be specific enough for determining accent and non-specific enough not to attract stalking. Even a rough area (Midwest, Northeast etc) would be good enough for your rough accent.

[Bedelato]

Yeah, I have [e] or [eI] (not sure) in Genghis Kahn and penguin (although I'd understand some one who used for the last one).

I have [ɛ] in both of those.

Protip: A state would be specific enough for determining accent and non-specific enough not to attract stalking. Even a rough area (Midwest, Northeast etc) would be good enough for your rough accent.

I'll have to think about it

[sirred]

Please do. Right now it's like:
A: Help 911! I'm being stabbed!
B: Ok, caller where are you located?
A: Oh you know, one of those streets with a stop sign by it.

[Corumayas]

I have this! Actually I probably have some variation between [in] and [iŋ]~[ɪŋ] for -ing; but the velar nasal feels slightly foreign to me, like it belongs to another dialect (or maybe a spelling pronunciation). The primary difference between running and runnin' isn't the nasal for me, it's the vowel (/in/ vs. /ɪn/~/ən/). I remember noticing this years and years ago (maybe in high school).

It's not a general sound change as far as I can tell... unless maybe it applies only to unstressed /ɪŋ/? I normally have [ɪŋ] in words like king, ring, etc. (although since moving to California I probably have some tensing creeping in). On the other hand, according to Finlay English is supposed to start with /ɪŋ/, but I think for me it's [iŋ].

I don't have the pin-pen merger (although I think some people where I grew up do), and I have [ɛŋ] in penguin. I do have some tensing of /æ/ before nasals, though (as do most American accents I think).

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

[schwhatever]

At least in my idiolect, there's no [IN] - king, ring, drink are [k_hiN r\`iN dz`_e)r\`iNk]

[Drydic]

At least in my idiolect, there's no [IN] - king, ring, drink are [k_hiN r\`iN dz`_e)r\`iNk]

Report to the local Inquisition office immediately, heretic.

[makvas]

For me, <drink> [dZr\i~Nk_}]. This remains unaltered from how I learned it, but the pin-pen merger I worked to undo in my everyday speech (just as a matter of aesthetics).

[Bedelato]

Please do. Right now it's like:
A: Help 911! I'm being stabbed!
B: Ok, caller where are you located?
A: Oh you know, one of those streets with a stop sign by it.

Except in that case it's justified. You can trust the emergency services with your address. Some stranger you meet in an online forum, not so much. ...Wait a minute, how can you use a phone while being stabbed, anyway?
...Yes, TV Tropes ruined my life. Don't mention it.

Okay, I'll tell you. But if some stalker finds and CENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSORED with rivets, guess what bulletin board I'll be blaming

I live in Texas right now, and I lived in California before that. But hold on, before you go stereotyping, let me enumerate the features of my accent for the nth time. Because my accent is not at all stereotypical of either region.

Some features my accent shares with those regional dialects (not sorted):

• Cot-caught merger
• Mary-marry-merry merger
• Æ-tensing before /m/ and /n/; /æ/ is realized as something like [eə] in this environment
• /æ/ becomes [e] before /ŋ/ (however, it still belongs to the TRAP set); I prefer to analyze this as part of pre-nasal Æ-tensing
• Back vowels /ou ʊ u/ are fronted to approximately (IMI) [œu ɵ ʉ], but they remain back before /r l/
• Preservation of /l/ in words like <talk> (though this might be a spelling pronunciation)
• Mirror-nearer merger

Features I do not have that are associated with those regions:

• Pin-pen merger
• California vowel shift (unless you count the fronting mentioned above)
• Southern vowel shift (again, unless you count back-vowel fronting)
• Pretty much anything you'll find on Wikipedia related to these regional dialects but not found on the first list

So there. Happy?

[finlay]

I think you're safe, given that you come from the two most populous states in the union.

Besides, the less attention you draw to it, the better, probably. And there are plenty of us on here that give out more information than is strictly healthy (it'd be less work for your axe-wielding murderer to go after one of us). hell, you even know what city I'm in and everything...

[Bedelato]

Some of you mentioned California dialects. I'll look into that, but what with air travel and all that, you can't exactly pinpoint a regional accent anymore.

Yes, yes you can. Most people really don't move all that far from where they grew up, generally.

Agreed. In coastal northern California (and I'm thinking in good sections of souther California too, but not sure), there's a pretty concise set of vowel mergers regarding specific following nasals, so there's (at least among locals) virtually no free variation like (according to this thread) in other USA dialects. The almost entirely universal mergers (among speakers and among words) that come to mind:

-pen-pin which is pretty common elsewhere too - I E > I* /_n (exception for certain Bay Area idiolects)
-lennon-lenin which is a little more rare - I @ > I* /_n (near universal)
-{ tensing isn't just for the NCVS anymore - eI E*** { > e** /_N (near universal)
-I tensing - I i > i /_N

Supposedly the second to last one (the tensing of /{/) is part of a larger California shift where [{~], that is /{/ before a nasal, is rising compared to [{], that is everywhere else, which is being backed towards [a]. I don't hear this in either my idiolect or nearby ones, but it might be more common that I think. In either case, there's a lot

TL;DR: The entire vowel system is being reorganized in California, and it's progressed the furthest in nasal and rhotic environments.

*Exact quality is a little dicey. I think it's something around I_- in that it's a lot more central and back than [i.] but not quite [I\] or [1].
**The rising diphthongs /eI oU/ are getting a lot closer to [e: o:] in certain contexts and I think this might be one of them.
***I can't think of any instances of [EN] IMD which seems suspicious since there's also no [{N] at all, does any one have [EN] anywhere for comparison?

Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm repeating myself here. But I just can't help it. Showing off my idiolect is fun.

The only thing I have out of all those is the /æ/→[ẽ] before /ŋ/, which I consider part of the whole /æ/-tensing thing. Before /m/ and /n/, this is diphthongized to [eə].
/ɛŋ/ remains [ɛ̃ŋ], so eng and ang would remain distinct.

[Corumayas]

On thinking about it a little more, I believe that my /ɪŋ/ is tenser when it's followed by /k/ or /g/: so I have something closer to [iŋ] in think, drink, England, but closer to [ɪŋ] in king, ring, wing.

It also occurs to me that I (of course) have for word-final -y (including in -ly); surely that's connected to having in -ing?

[sirred]

I think you're safe, given that you come from the two most populous states in the union.

Besides, the less attention you draw to it, the better, probably. And there are plenty of us on here that give out more information than is strictly healthy (it'd be less work for your axe-wielding murderer to go after one of us). hell, you even know what city I'm in and everything...

The city of Edinburgh, pop: 477,660.
The country of Iceland, pop: 318,452.
I think you're safe too, Finlay.

[finlay]

True, true, just making a clumsy point.

I've also met plenty of ZBBers, none of whom have been axe-wielding murderers – although there hasn't been a proper meet up in quite a few years, I still occasionally see jmcd, and Rory if he's in the country (bastard went to America grumble grumble).

[Simmalti]

I've heard a guy here in Malta saying /ɪŋkʼ/ , but that's just Maltese weirdness.

(As for the axe-murdering, you have a 1/400k chance of finding me... I should be scared)

[Drydic]

I've heard a guy here in Malta saying /ɪŋkʼ/ , but that's just Maltese weirdness.

(As for the axe-murdering, you have a 1/400k chance of finding me... I should be scared)

It's ok. We'll just fly around the island(s) chucking axes out the back of the plane. We'll find you eventually.

[sirred]

Hm. Does Sam's Club sell axes? That seems like something we'd need in bulk unless we're just reusing one 400000 times. Also, it'd be great if it sold plane fuel too.

[zuben]

Am I the only person who still has /ŋg/ in all positions for <ng>? i.e. the ng in finger and running are both pronounced the same: /fɪŋgə/ and /ɹʊnɪŋg/, and the two ng's in 'singing' are also both the same for me: /sɪŋgɪŋg/

[Drydic]

Yes, you are.

[finlay]

It's typical in the North West of England and the Midlands, so no, you're not weird, unless you count being from Liverpool/Manchester/Birmingham as weird in and of itself, which many people would do.

[Drydic]

It's typical in the North West of England and the Midlands, so no, you're not weird, unless you count being from Liverpool/Manchester/Birmingham as weird in and of itself, which many people would do.

Bloody English.

[finlay]

Wikipedia has a delightful map:

I would love to know, incidentally, whether the pattern extends into bordering areas of Wales, particularly what I think is known as the A55 corridor where people from the crowded cities in that part of England spread into Wales, much to the chagrin of the nationalists...

[linguofreak]

When I pronounce "ing" fully (with an /N/ instead of an /n/) the vowel is a glide, namely [Ii].

In fact, all my front lax vowels have an offglide before /N/ or /g/.

Thus:

hang [h{iN] /h{N/
egg [Eig] /Eg/
big [bIig] /bIg/