The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[ol bofosh]

Alahithian [æ.lə.ˈhɪ.θiən] (/oɭ a.ˈɭa.hiʈ/ in Alahithian)
Gnoughish [nʊu.ɪʃ] (/'gnuːɣ.ɪsh/ in Gnoughish)

garage [ˈgæ.ɹʷɪdʒ]
mirror [ˈmɪ.ɹʷə]
a(n) historic occasion [ə hɪsː'tɒɹɪk ə.ˈkʰɛɪ.ʒən]
the superfluity of naughtiness [d̪ə ˌsə.ˈpʰœː.flʏi.tɪi ɒv ˈˈnɔː.tɪ.nəs]

[Rekettye]

mirror [mɹ̩ːː↗]

Mrr? Are you sure you've transcribed that correctly?

Have you ever heard anyone from Northern Ireland speak? XD

Though in "careful speech" it's probably [mɹ̩ɹ̩] or [mə˞ɹə˞].

garage [ˈgæ.ɹʷɪdʒ]

[ˈgaˑɹədʒ]

Nice!

Now what does it mean for yous?
For me it's:
(1) the place where you keep your car,
(2) a place where car mechanics work,
AND (3) a petrol service station / "gas station", especially with a shop

[Bob Johnson]

mirror [mɹ̩ːː↗]

Mrr? Are you sure you've transcribed that correctly?

Have you ever heard anyone from Northern Ireland speak? XD

Though in "careful speech" it's probably [mɹ̩ɹ̩] or [mə˞ɹə˞].

Well English isn't typically described as a tonal language with three degrees of length...

[Thry]

Such descriptions are phonemic

[finlay]

mirror [mɹ̩ːː↗]

Mrr? Are you sure you've transcribed that correctly?

Have you ever heard anyone from Northern Ireland speak? XD

Though in "careful speech" it's probably [mɹ̩ɹ̩] or [mə˞ɹə˞].

Well English isn't typically described as a tonal language with three degrees of length...

That's true. Northern Irish accents do have a distinctive upstep, but it's on the sentence level, not the word level – it's prosodic, not tonal. So it's not accurate to transcribe it when you're talking about a single word. Because if you put it into a sentence, it'll lose that upstep in favour of the nuclear accent of the sentence. (Also, it's an upstep, not a global rise; Northern Irish intonation is otherwise quite flat, compared to other accents that stereotypically have a rising intonation on statements, such as Australian English, which has a more consistently rising intonation)

As for garage, yes, it has those meanings, but since I now live in a land of Americanisms, I tend to avoid the ones that are specific to the UK, such as the gas station meaning. (I can't remember if they use it in England, but I think they do)

[Pole, the]

mirror [mɹ̩ːː↗]

Mrr? Are you sure you've transcribed that correctly?

Have you ever heard anyone from Northern Ireland speak? XD

Though in "careful speech" it's probably [mɹ̩ɹ̩] or [mə˞ɹə˞].

Well English isn't typically described as a tonal language with three degrees of length...

Well [ ] is for phonetic transcription; / / is for phonemic one.

[ol bofosh]

garage [ˈgæ.ɹʷɪdʒ]

[ˈgaˑɹədʒ]

Nice!

Now what does it mean for yous?
For me it's:
(1) the place where you keep your car,
(2) a place where car mechanics work,
AND (3) a petrol service station / "gas station", especially with a shop

Can be all three, though for (2) I'd usually say "Mechanic" and for (3), petrol station.

[----]

For me it's [gəˈɹɑːʒ]. The first time I heard the UK pronunciation of the word, I didn't understand what they were saying at all.

[ol bofosh]

For me it's [gəˈɹɑːʒ]. The first time I heard the UK pronunciation of the word, I didn't understand what they were saying at all.

When I get home I'm going to put my car in the ["g{.r\IdZ].
I'm going to the shops, but on my way I'll fill up at the ["g{.r\IdZ].
My car's a bit funny. I'm taking it to the ["g{.r\IdZ] for it to be fixed.

Could get confusing.

[Rekettye]

mirror [mɹ̩ːː↗]

Mrr? Are you sure you've transcribed that correctly?

Have you ever heard anyone from Northern Ireland speak? XD

Though in "careful speech" it's probably [mɹ̩ɹ̩] or [mə˞ɹə˞].

Well English isn't typically described as a tonal language with three degrees of length...

That's true. Northern Irish accents do have a distinctive upstep, but it's on the sentence level, not the word level – it's prosodic, not tonal. So it's not accurate to transcribe it when you're talking about a single word. Because if you put it into a sentence, it'll lose that upstep in favour of the nuclear accent of the sentence. (Also, it's an upstep, not a global rise; Northern Irish intonation is otherwise quite flat, compared to other accents that stereotypically have a rising intonation on statements, such as Australian English, which has a more consistently rising intonation)

As for garage, yes, it has those meanings, but since I now live in a land of Americanisms, I tend to avoid the ones that are specific to the UK, such as the gas station meaning. (I can't remember if they use it in England, but I think they do)

Lolz you all took me seriously about "mirror"
Could you not tell that something transcribed as [mɹ̩ːː↗] was being tongue-in-cheek?
Though I confused it by then being deadpan about the correct transcription immediately after. Soz

[Bob Johnson]

Lolz you all took me seriously about "mirror"
Could you not tell that something transcribed as [mɹ̩ːː↗] was being tongue-in-cheek?
Though I confused it by then being deadpan about the correct transcription immediately after. Soz

Pretending to be trolling all along after making a mistake is rather transparent.

[Rekettye]

Lolz you all took me seriously about "mirror"
Could you not tell that something transcribed as [mɹ̩ːː↗] was being tongue-in-cheek?
Though I confused it by then being deadpan about the correct transcription immediately after. Soz

Pretending to be trolling all along after making a mistake is rather transparent.

Well, I'm sorry if when I asked you "Have you not heard NI people speak", if it came across as rude. Regarding that comment, it certainly wasn't meant to be - it was meant to be self-deprecatory, i.e. "look at how ridiculous/strange our accent is". But reading through this exchange again, I can see why it sounded that way. Sorry about that.

You'll probably not believe me now, but please hear me out. You're correct that I can't fully defend the "I wasn't being serious at all" position. However, it genuinely wasn't "trying to do a proper transcription and just got it wrong out of ignorance" either. My intention when posting definitely was not fully serious - but it wasn't fully "trolling", as you rightly say, and I shouldn't have tried to defend it in the way that I did.

The only thing that's stopping me agreeing with you fully, i.e. that I was ignorant of something and then tried to cover it up, is the following: the fact that I do know now, and did know at the time of posting, that English doesn't have a double length distinction, and that I do know and did know at the time that "global rise" isn't the correct symbol for the intonation either. I hope you could take me at my word for that, given the earlier transcriptions I gave which (hopefully) didn't have glaring errors. However, I didn't know the precise details of the intonation as much as finlay, so if I were to have tried to do it properly I would have had to look that up.

The basic problem is that I shouldn't have been so flippant about it - if I were doing it seriously, I should have done it 100% seriously, and if I were doing it in jest, I should have done it 100% in jest (i.e. put [mɹ̩ːːːːːːːːː] or something). This is, honestly, an occasion where I don't want to come across the way I have come across, and what I've posted doesn't reflect what was actually my intention. It's the second time it's happened to me on this board (see also my stupid putting-foot-in-it with the Zerrakhi a while ago). And if I'm honest it is something I need to repent of - opening my mouth (/typing) before thinking about it.

Oh, and NI people really do say [mɹ̩ː].

[Thry]

Sorry for insistence, but:

vertebra
vertebrae

microvillus
microvilli

My guesses:
/'vɛɹ.tə.bɹə
'vɛɹ.tə.bɹeɪ
ˌmaɪ.kɹoʊ.'vɪ.ləs
ˌmaɪ.kɹoʊ.'vɪ.laɪ/

[Ser]

Good. Be most welcome to the traditional English pronunciation of Latin.

SAEPE ET MVLTVM HOC MECVM COGITAVI BONINE AN MALI PLVS ATTVLERIT HOMINIBVS ET CIVITATIBVS COPIA DICENDI AC SVMMVM ELOQVENTIAE STVDIVM NAM CVM ET NOSTRAE REI PVBLICAE DETRIMENTA CONSIDERO...
/ˈsipi ɛt ˈmɐltəm ˈhɑk ˈmikəm coʊdʒɪˈteɪvi boʊˈnaɪni æn ˈmɑli plɐs aˈtɐlɪɹɪt hoʊˈmɪnɪbəs ɛt sɪvɪˈteɪtɪbəs ˈkɑpiə dɪˈsɛndaɪ æk ˈsɐməm ɛləˈkwɛnʃii ˈstudiəm ˈnæm kəm ɛt ˈnɑstreɪ ˈɹiaɪ ˈpɐblɪsi dɛtrɪˈmɛntə kənˈsɪdəɹoʊ.../

[ol bofosh]

Sorry for insistence, but:

vertebra
vertebrae

microvillus
microvilli

My guesses:
/'vɛɹ.tə.bɹə
'vɛɹ.tə.bɹeɪ
ˌmaɪ.kɹoʊ.'vɪ.ləs
ˌmaɪ.kɹoʊ.'vɪ.laɪ/

[ˈvœː.tə.brʷˠə]
[ˈvœː.tə.bɹʷˠɛi]
[mɐi.kʰɹʷˠə.ˈvɪ.ləs]
[mɐi.kʰɹʷˠə.ˈvɪ.lɐi]

[Viktor77]

Ok, what is the proper way to pronounce Alabama, specifically the Ala part? My whole life I was raised to say [35.l@.be@.m@] with a very distinct dark L and a third syllable diphthong [e@] as in Cat. And this is how it's pronounced around me. But now I've been exposed to others in other parts of the country and they are saying [a.l@.ba.m@] with very little dark L and a very distinct [a] as opposed to [3] and [e@] in my case. What is most correct according to Alabamans?

[linguoboy]

What is most correct according to Alabamans?

What do you care what Alabamans say? We've got them totally outnumbered.

[----]

I'm not Alabamish but I do live near the state, and I say it [æɫəˈbæ̃mə].

[finlay]

Ok, what is the proper way to pronounce Alabama, specifically the Ala part? My whole life I was raised to say [35.l@.be@.m@] with a very distinct dark L and a third syllable diphthong [e@] as in Cat. And this is how it's pronounced around me. But now I've been exposed to others in other parts of the country and they are saying [a.l@.ba.m@] with very little dark L and a very distinct [a] as opposed to [3] and [e@] in my case. What is most correct according to Alabamans?

Those, particularly the dark L thing, are purely a matter of accent, though, in the sense that whether you use one or the other doesn't make a difference to the word itself, only to what part of the country you sound like you're from.

[Viktor77]

Ok, what is the proper way to pronounce Alabama, specifically the Ala part? My whole life I was raised to say [35.l@.be@.m@] with a very distinct dark L and a third syllable diphthong [e@] as in Cat. And this is how it's pronounced around me. But now I've been exposed to others in other parts of the country and they are saying [a.l@.ba.m@] with very little dark L and a very distinct [a] as opposed to [3] and [e@] in my case. What is most correct according to Alabamans?

Those, particularly the dark L thing, are purely a matter of accent, though, in the sense that whether you use one or the other doesn't make a difference to the word itself, only to what part of the country you sound like you're from.

Yes, but what is more proper? For example, there are two ways to pronounced Nevada and Oregon, too, but there is an appropriate way. I suppose you could say this about Maryland, too.

[finlay]

Dark L isn't one of those things that varies between words, though: you either have it or you don't. With things like stress or front/back a, different words do different things. In other words, dark L is not phonemic.

[vampireshark]

Ok, what is the proper way to pronounce Alabama, specifically the Ala part? My whole life I was raised to say [35.l@.be@.m@] with a very distinct dark L and a third syllable diphthong [e@] as in Cat. And this is how it's pronounced around me. But now I've been exposed to others in other parts of the country and they are saying [a.l@.ba.m@] with very little dark L and a very distinct [a] as opposed to [3] and [e@] in my case. What is most correct according to Alabamans?

I've always heard roughly [ˌæ.ləˈbæ.mə], especially from Southerners. I pronounce it the same way.

Latest one: Cuyahoga, a common toponym around here.

[Travis B.]

vertebra: /ˈvərtəbrə/ > [ˈvʁ̩ˤɾ̥əːb̥ɰˤə(ː)]
vertebrae: /ˈvərtəˌbre/ > [ˈvʁ̩ˤɾ̥əːˌb̥ɰˤe(ː)]
microvillus: /ˈməe̯kroˌvɪləs/ > [ˈmə̆ĕ̯ʔkɰˤoːˌvɪːɯ̞̯əs]
microvilli: /ˈməe̯kroˌvɪlae̯/ > [ˈmə̆ĕ̯ʔkɰˤoːˌvɪːɯ̞̯ăĕ̯]~[ˈmə̆ĕ̯ʔkɰˤoːˌvɪːɯ̞̯ae̯]
Alabama: /ˌɛləˈbɛmə/ > [ˌɛːɤ̯əːˈb̥ɛ̃ːmə(ː)]
Cuyahoga: /ˌkae̯əˈhoɡə/ > [ˌkʰae̯əˈhoːɡ̊ə(ː)]

[finlay]

Ok, what is the proper way to pronounce Alabama, specifically the Ala part? My whole life I was raised to say [35.l@.be@.m@] with a very distinct dark L and a third syllable diphthong [e@] as in Cat. And this is how it's pronounced around me. But now I've been exposed to others in other parts of the country and they are saying [a.l@.ba.m@] with very little dark L and a very distinct [a] as opposed to [3] and [e@] in my case. What is most correct according to Alabamans?

I've always heard roughly [ˌæ.ləˈbæ.mə], especially from Southerners. I pronounce it the same way.

Latest one: Cuyahoga, a common toponym around here.

why are you asking us about a word we're likely not to know, especially when by implication of you actually asking the question, I guess it has an unintuitive pronunciation? i mean i would guess /ku.ja/ or /kwi.a/, but from what Travis wrote, it isn't either. so at what point is my opinion valid on what the spelling looks like?

[Bristel]

Cuyahoga [kai.jə.hoʊ.gə]