The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

There are so many possibilities in English - even ejectives as final consonants so if your accent is overall good (vowels. intonation, rhythm, aspiration all correct) then I doubt that a lack of flapping or glottalisation will be the giveaway... maybe if your vowels are really American.

Well, ejectives are very rare word-final allophones of voiceless stops in my register of Polish (I'm a student), so I produce them speaking English. Nice to know.
You say "American vowels". I'm just trying to be able to speak both GA and BE, maybe also AuE or NZE.

Thanks to all of you.

[Vlürch]

If I said [boːɾiŋ], would the average American really think I was saying "botting" or "bodding" or something else rather than "boring"?

[alynnidalar]

That'd depend on the context, wouldn't it? "Botting" and "bodding" aren't really words, and they probably wouldn't be used in the same ways that "boring" would anyway. If someone says "this play is [boːɾiŋ]", yeah, I'd probably realize they meant <boring> from the context, because what else could they possibly mean? Definitely would be markedly accented, though.

(that being said, in isolation, it probably would sound like "boating" to me)

[vokzhen]

If I said [boːɾiŋ], would the average American really think I was saying "botting" or "bodding" or something else rather than "boring"?

I'd get "boring" because you're not using the right vowel for "botting" or "bodding." If you said [ba:ɾiŋ], I'd assume botting/bodding unless you've got a noticeable accent.

[Vlürch]

"Botting" and "bodding" aren't really words

Well, "botting" could mean doing whatever bots do. Then again, with that logic, "fishing" would mean acting like a fish, so... Bodding, on the other hand, I have no idea. I was thinking of one of the most annoyingly cute-sounding words ever to describe a non-cute concept, "bodmodding", but for some reason forgot that it isn't "bodding". I also don't get how it's even a real word, but apparently it is... it just sounds so fucking uguu~, you know, but people sticking shit in their forehead and whatnot is the farthest thing from cute, at least in my opinion. Piercings and tattoos can be really cool, though, as long as they're not overdone and ridiculous or whatever and I don't even know why I'm rambling about this when it has nothing to do with anything.

unless you've got a noticeable accent

I kinda do, heh.

[Travis B.]

If I said [boːɾiŋ], would the average American really think I was saying "botting" or "bodding" or something else rather than "boring"?

I would read that as boating pronounced with a noticeable accent.

[Imralu]

If I said [boːɾiŋ], would the average American really think I was saying "botting" or "bodding" or something else rather than "boring"?

I would read that as boating pronounced with a noticeable accent.

That's how I pronounce "boarding" ... well, except for the but I my brother uses [iŋ] and no one notices because velars sometimes do weird things to vowels.

[Qxentio]

The word "sensuality" usually comes out as [sɛn.çuˈæ.lɪ.ti] whenever I say it. How weird is this to native ears?

[Vijay]

Not that weird to me. It's only slightly different from my own pronunciation of that word.

[Zaarin]

The word "sensuality" usually comes out as [sɛn.çuˈæ.lɪ.ti] whenever I say it. How weird is this to native ears?

Mildly weird, if only because the [ç] is rather unexpected. On the other hand, aside from that one sound it's identical to my own pronunciation: [sɛn.ʃjuˈæ.lɪ.ti] (or possibly [sɛn.ʧuˈæ.lɪ.ti]).

Wikipedia offers the pronunciation /ælˈhæmbrə/ for Alhambra. I realize this is actually closer to the Arabic pronunciation, but that just pains my ears. Do people really say that in place of /ɑlˈhɑmbrə/?

[linguoboy]

Wikipedia offers the pronunciation /ælˈhæmbrə/ for Alhambra. I realize this is actually closer to the Arabic pronunciation, but that just pains my ears. Do people really say that in place of /ɑlˈhɑmbrə/?

Wait, people say the h?

[Vijay]

The word "sensuality" usually comes out as [sɛn.çuˈæ.lɪ.ti] whenever I say it. How weird is this to native ears?

Mildly weird, if only because the [ç] is rather unexpected. On the other hand, aside from that one sound it's identical to my own pronunciation: [sɛn.ʃjuˈæ.lɪ.ti] (or possibly [sɛn.ʧuˈæ.lɪ.ti]).

So you don't flap the /t/?

[Travis B.]

I have [ˌsɜ̃ntɕʉ̯uːˈwɛːɤ̯ɘɾi(ː)~ˌsɜ̃nɕʉ̯uːˈwɛːɤ̯ɘɾi(ː)] for sensuality.

[Zaarin]

Wikipedia offers the pronunciation /ælˈhæmbrə/ for Alhambra. I realize this is actually closer to the Arabic pronunciation, but that just pains my ears. Do people really say that in place of /ɑlˈhɑmbrə/?

Wait, people say the h?

I do, though it might be closer to [ɦ] in that particular utterance.

The word "sensuality" usually comes out as [sɛn.çuˈæ.lɪ.ti] whenever I say it. How weird is this to native ears?

Mildly weird, if only because the [ç] is rather unexpected. On the other hand, aside from that one sound it's identical to my own pronunciation: [sɛn.ʃjuˈæ.lɪ.ti] (or possibly [sɛn.ʧuˈæ.lɪ.ti]).

So you don't flap the /t/?

Yes, I do. I got caught up on the palatal fricative and didn't pay attention to the coronal plosive. :p

[Sumelic]

If I said [boːɾiŋ], would the average American really think I was saying "botting" or "bodding" or something else rather than "boring"?

I think that depends in part on certain unwritten phonetic details. Despite the fact that the IPA symbol [ɾ] is used to represent both the sound of e.g. Spanish short "r" and the American English intervocalic allophone of "t" or "d" before unstressed syllables, I don't think these sounds are really phonetically identical. I don't know enough to say precisely what the difference is, though. Possibly it's related to POA.

(I assume this was just a typo, but if the [ɾ] was interpreted as /t/ or /d/, [boːɾiŋ] would equate to "boting" or "boding" rather than "botting" or "bodding").

The word "sensuality" usually comes out as [sɛn.çuˈæ.lɪ.ti] whenever I say it. How weird is this to native ears?

It seems weird to me, but the word is long enough that I think it would be identifiable anyway.

Wikipedia offers the pronunciation /ælˈhæmbrə/ for Alhambra. I realize this is actually closer to the Arabic pronunciation, but that just pains my ears. Do people really say that in place of /ɑlˈhɑmbrə/?

Weird, I've always said /æˈlɑmbrə/. My favorite thing about this place name is that some people have used "the La Alhambra" with three definite articles.

[Zaarin]

Wikipedia offers the pronunciation /ælˈhæmbrə/ for Alhambra. I realize this is actually closer to the Arabic pronunciation, but that just pains my ears. Do people really say that in place of /ɑlˈhɑmbrə/?

Weird, I've always said /æˈlɑmbrə/. My favorite thing about this place name is that some people have used "the La Alhambra" with three definite articles.

The first vowel varies between /æ~ɑ/ for me, but I definitely have a glottal fricative in there.

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

Do you make a distinction between "higher" and "hire", and if, how? I'd like to know 'cause my pronunciations are something like [ˈhɐɪ.ə] and [hɐ(ɘ̟̯)ə̯], but my friends have typical Polish accent, so for them these words are (in most cases) pronounced [xäjɛ̈ɹ̠ˤ]. If they ask me anything about these words, can I tell them they're pronounced differently?

[Travis B.]

higher: [haːe̯(j)ʁ̩ˤ(ː)]
hire: [həːe̯(j)ʁ̩ˤ(ː)]

[linguoboy]

Do you make a distinction between "higher" and "hire", and if, how? I'd like to know 'cause my pronunciations are something like [ˈhɐɪ.ə] and [hɐ(ɘ̟̯)ə̯], but my friends have typical Polish accent, so for them these words are (in most cases) pronounced [xäjɛ̈ɹ̠ˤ]. If they ask me anything about these words, can I tell them they're pronounced differently?

Hmm, I have smoothing (i.e. centralisation/deletion of the second element in diphthongs) before liquids in some monosyllabic morphemes (e.g. fire, smile) but not hire I don't think. Maybe I'm trying to avoid the homophony of smoothed hired and hard?

[Travis B.]

Do you make a distinction between "higher" and "hire", and if, how? I'd like to know 'cause my pronunciations are something like [ˈhɐɪ.ə] and [hɐ(ɘ̟̯)ə̯], but my friends have typical Polish accent, so for them these words are (in most cases) pronounced [xäjɛ̈ɹ̠ˤ]. If they ask me anything about these words, can I tell them they're pronounced differently?

Hmm, I have smoothing (i.e. centralisation/deletion of the second element in diphthongs) before liquids in some monosyllabic morphemes (e.g. fire, smile) but not hire I don't think. Maybe I'm trying to avoid the homophony of smoothed hired and hard?

I reduce /aɪl/ where /l/ falls in a coda position to [aɤ] regularly (but not if a suffix follows beginning with a vowel), but I do not do such a thing with /əɪr/*, which I turn into two syllables, as is typical for English varieties, when not followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel.

* Properly, IMD /aɪ/ and, shall we say, /əɪ/ are distinct phonemes, but there are very few cases in which they may contrast.

[Imralu]

[ˌsen(t)ʃəˈwæɫəɾɪi̯] - sensuality ... make vowels schwa again!!
[ˈhɑe̯ʲɐ] - hire, higher ... I'm not quite sure to what extent the epenthetic [j] really kicks in so I marked it with a superscript because it seems pretty variable. In any case, these words are homophones for me.

[Sumelic]

Do you make a distinction between "higher" and "hire", and if, how? I'd like to know 'cause my pronunciations are something like [ˈhɐɪ.ə] and [hɐ(ɘ̟̯)ə̯], but my friends have typical Polish accent, so for them these words are (in most cases) pronounced [xäjɛ̈ɹ̠ˤ]. If they ask me anything about these words, can I tell them they're pronounced differently?

They're both the same for me, at least in perception, usually disyllabic [ˈhaɪ̯ɚ] (or [ˈhae̯ɚ] or hai̯ɚ]; I don't know the exact quality of the offglide from the first syllable). Either could be compressed to one syllable in e.g. singing, but that's just like other disyllabic words like "heaven".

[finlay]

In a book from the 19th century we read in high school, this was given as an example of words that a Scottish character couldn't distinguish. We couldn't work out what the difference was meant to be, or even if modern RP speakers would distinguish them. But even today scottish accents like to break syllables like that – I remember being taught about syllables in primary school and we were trying to work out how many were in our names. Mine is pretty simple, but my classmates Claire and Neil both broke the syllables in a way in which my teacher, originally from England, wouldn't (like [kle.ər] and [ni.əl]), so he awkwardly was trying to correct them.

[Imralu]

Yeah, I can't even pronounce Neil as one syllable without doing something weird like making the L as weirdly clear as it is in German.

[linguoboy]

I first became aware of the possibility of a distinction in these words from Tolkien. When he introduces the coinage smial in his appendix to LotR, he says something like, "Rhyming with dial rather than smile" and I was like "What the hell's the difference?"

I was chuffed a few years ago to realise that I still distinguish quiet from quite even in rapid speech when the former is monosyllabic on account of my "Canadian" raising.