How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Moderator:JackFrost

Linguaphile
Posts:5358
Joined:2016-09-17, 5:06
Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Linguaphile » 2016-10-15, 18:43

JasleenKaur wrote:I am pronouncing Sa-cher-day is that right ?


I agree with the other people who have responded - there is no ch or tju in the word. I'm in the western United States and pronounce it sætərdeɪ (sat-er-day). The /t/ sound is pretty variable, depending on the speaker and how fast they are speaking: t̬/ɾ/d/t/tʰ (sadder-day, satter-day, etc). At times from other speakers I've also heard sætərdi (sat-er-dee), again with variable /t/.
Forvo has a variety of speakers pronouncing this word, and all of them sound fine and perfectly understandable (although it's quite obvious that they are from different regions of the English-speaking world). The last speaker uses the -di pronunciation at the end of the word, but -deɪ is more standard. I would say the first two examples on the Forvo site are closest to the way I pronounce the word myself, particularly the second one.
Listen to Forvo's variations of this word here: http://forvo.com/word/saturday/

User avatar
OyVey
Posts:89
Joined:2016-10-08, 22:46
Gender:male
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby OyVey » 2016-10-24, 14:41

/ˈsætədɪ/
I pronounce it with [dɪ] rather than [di] or [deɪ] usually. Same with Monday, Tuesday, etc.
I should have specified.

Ofc when I am pronouncing it slowly, I would pronounce it like "Sa-ter-day". When I say it at normal speed however then I'd pronounce it as "Sa-er-day"

So like dEhiN, I use /t/. So yes I do flap the "t". Hope that clarifies everything.
"Sa-er-day" Do you mean you flap the t or do you elide it?
Avatar by gill from Glasgow, uk (oy vey!) CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Eioaioai
Posts:8
Joined:2016-01-12, 7:54
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Eioaioai » 2016-10-29, 15:37

/ˈsætɚdeɪ̯/ but I normally realize it as [ˈsæː.ɾɚ.ɾeɪ̯] flapping both the "t" and the "d." Anyone else reduce both?
English, Italiano, Suomi, Türkçe, 中文, العربية

User avatar
linguoboy
Posts:25540
Joined:2009-08-25, 15:11
Real Name:Da
Location:Chicago
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby linguoboy » 2016-10-29, 16:20

I'm pretty sure I never flap alveolar stops after [ɚ]. I just tried doing it now and it sounds quite odd to me.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

User avatar
OyVey
Posts:89
Joined:2016-10-08, 22:46
Gender:male
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby OyVey » 2016-10-30, 21:07

With a flapped /t/, does that lengthen the vowel?
Avatar by gill from Glasgow, uk (oy vey!) CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

User avatar
Michael
Posts:7126
Joined:2009-07-21, 3:07
Real Name:Mike
Gender:male
Location:Oak Park, IL
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Michael » 2016-10-30, 22:59

In a prescribed setting, /ˈsæɾɚdeɪ̯/, but in conversation I most likely contract it to [ˈsæɾ͡ɹeɪ̯]. Does this seem plausible to any other of you North Americans?
American English (en-us) Neapolitan from Molise (nap) N Italian (it) B2 Spanish (es) Portuguese (pt) French (fr) Greek (el) Albanian (sq) B1 Polish (pl) Romanian (ro) A2 Azerbaijani (az) Turkish (tr) Old English (en_old) A1
„Çdo njeri është peng i veprave të veta.‟
Every human being is hostage to their own deeds.

User avatar
linguoboy
Posts:25540
Joined:2009-08-25, 15:11
Real Name:Da
Location:Chicago
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby linguoboy » 2016-10-31, 2:28

OyVey wrote:With a flapped /t/, does that lengthen the vowel?

Perhaps for some speakers, but generally vowel length is preserved, leading to a phonetic distinction between /d/ and /t/ even with both are realised as [ɾ].

linguoboy wrote:I'm pretty sure I never flap alveolar stops after [ɚ]. I just tried doing it now and it sounds quite odd to me.

Now that I think of it, my father contracts irritable to [ˈiːɚ̯ɾɪ̈bɫˌ]. (As I child, I thought this was an entirely different word, which I mentally spelled eardible.)
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

User avatar
OyVey
Posts:89
Joined:2016-10-08, 22:46
Gender:male
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby OyVey » 2016-10-31, 3:39

Michael wrote:In a prescribed setting, /ˈsæɾɚdeɪ̯/, but in conversation I most likely contract it to [ˈsæɾ͡ɹeɪ̯]. Does this seem plausible to any other of you North Americans?
What does the halo over the ɾ͡ɹ mean?
Avatar by gill from Glasgow, uk (oy vey!) CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

User avatar
Michael
Posts:7126
Joined:2009-07-21, 3:07
Real Name:Mike
Gender:male
Location:Oak Park, IL
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Michael » 2016-10-31, 4:38

OyVey wrote:
Michael wrote:In a prescribed setting, /ˈsæɾɚdeɪ̯/, but in conversation I most likely contract it to [ˈsæɾ͡ɹeɪ̯]. Does this seem plausible to any other of you North Americans?
What does the halo over the ɾ͡ɹ mean?

I was trying to convey how I shoot straight for the rhotic consonant, a contraction of the rhotic vowel plus the second flap ("-ur+d-") of the "standard" GA pronunciation, immediately after the first flap ("-t-"), almost to the point of coarticulating them. Does that make it any clearer?
American English (en-us) Neapolitan from Molise (nap) N Italian (it) B2 Spanish (es) Portuguese (pt) French (fr) Greek (el) Albanian (sq) B1 Polish (pl) Romanian (ro) A2 Azerbaijani (az) Turkish (tr) Old English (en_old) A1
„Çdo njeri është peng i veprave të veta.‟
Every human being is hostage to their own deeds.

Inky Scrolls
Posts:11
Joined:2017-02-10, 17:46
Gender:male
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Inky Scrolls » 2017-02-28, 20:18

Another alternative pronunciation if you're going for a British accent, akin to my own, is [ˈsaʔ.ɵ̆ˌdɨ]. This is regular conversation; careful speech would have instead [ˈsa.tˢʰə̆ˌdeːɪ̯].

User avatar
Babbsagg
Posts:243
Joined:2017-02-26, 8:54
Gender:male
Country:DEGermany (Deutschland)

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby Babbsagg » 2017-02-28, 20:48

It's an interesting question, now that I think about it, I believe I use two different versions. When speaking distinctly, I'd say it's /ˈsatədeɪ/ but in more colloquial speech it's more like /ˈsaʔəde/. I can't be more specific because the complex phonetic script you people use is way over my head.
Thank you for correcting mistakes!

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: How do you pronounce "Saturday" ?

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-03-10, 3:09

I thought I said [ˈsæɾɹ̩dej], but I think I might actually say something more like [ˈsæɾɹ̩ɖej].


Return to “English”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests