The How do you Pronounce X Thread

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2015-08-03, 13:48

Mars80 wrote:How do you pronounce "grease" the noun and "grease" the verb? I pronounce them both as /gɹis/, but I've heard some people say /gɹis/ for the noun and /gɹiz/ for the verb.

I wonder if this is related to grea[s]y vs grea[z]y, an important isogloss in American English. (I have /s/ in all cases.)
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-03, 21:51

Merriam-Webster gives pronunciations of "grease" the verb both with [s] and with [z]. The [z] pronunciation is listed second.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grease

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2015-08-07, 15:55

Always with /s/. "Greazy" sounds like you're from the Bible Belt to me.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby ling » 2015-08-07, 17:45

Yes, "greazy" sounds really redneck to me.

"medieval": though I know it's technically wrong, I pronounce it as if it were "mid-evil". "medi-evil" sounds too pedantic to me.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Dormouse559 » 2015-08-07, 19:14

I've never heard of /mɪdˈivəl/ being wrong. In my experience, it's the most common pronunciation.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby ling » 2015-08-07, 19:55

Dormouse559 wrote:I've never heard of /mɪdˈivəl/ being wrong. In my experience, it's the most common pronunciation.

It's a common pronunciation, but like with "Feb-u-ary", it's not considered "proper" from the traditional prescriptivist standpoint.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2015-08-07, 20:56

ling wrote:
Dormouse559 wrote:I've never heard of /mɪdˈivəl/ being wrong. In my experience, it's the most common pronunciation.

It's a common pronunciation, but like with "Feb-u-ary", it's not considered "proper" from the traditional prescriptivist standpoint.

According to which prescriptivists?
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby ling » 2015-08-08, 16:08

Teachers I've had, articles I've read, etc.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-08, 21:09

For Americans who distinguish between the vowels in LOT and THOUGHT which vowel do you use in these words?

"wash"
"wasp"
"want"
"watch"

Apparently some Americans pronounce the above words with the vowel they use for THOUGHT vowel instead of the vowel they use for LOT.

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2015-08-09, 13:17

Mars80 wrote:For Americans who distinguish between the vowels in LOT and THOUGHT which vowel do you use in these words?

"wash" THOUGHT or START
"wasp" LOT
"want" STRUT
"watch" LOT
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-09, 20:06

How do you pronounce Always? Like "all weez" or "all wayz"? I use both.

How do you pronounce the days of the word? Do you pronounce the "day" ending like the word "day" or "dee"? I pronounce them ending like the word "day".

There's was once this joke I saw:

person 1: It's windy today!
person 2: No, it's Thursday!
person 3: So am I! Let's have a beer.

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby dEhiN » 2015-08-09, 22:26

Mars80 wrote:For Americans who distinguish between the vowels in LOT and THOUGHT which vowel do you use in these words?


Canadian here, but I say it like this:

"wash" THOUGHT
"wasp" LOT
"want" THOUGHT
"watch" LOT

Mars80 wrote:How do you pronounce Always? Like "all weez" or "all wayz"? I use both.

How do you pronounce the days of the wordweek? Do you pronounce the "day" ending like the word "day" or "dee"? I pronounce them ending like the word "day".

I say "all wayz" and "day" with a diphthong (so more like "dei" I guess).
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-08-22, 15:51

dEhiN wrote:
Mars80 wrote:How do you pronounce Always? Like "all weez" or "all wayz"? I use both.

How do you pronounce the days of the wordweek? Do you pronounce the "day" ending like the word "day" or "dee"? I pronounce them ending like the word "day".

I say "all wayz" and "day" with a diphthong (so more like "dei" I guess).

I do, too, although I think living in Texas for so long may have caused me to sometimes pronounce "day" with a monophthong in fast/casual speech (I think [ɪ]).

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Koko » 2015-08-22, 23:34

dEhiN wrote:Canadian here, but I say it like this:

"wash" THOUGHT
"wasp" LOT
"want" THOUGHT
"watch" LOT

Do people around you also have these unmerged?

Also, what are those respective vowels? (I know which two they are, but not what word has which)

I say "all wayz" and "day" with a diphthong (so more like "dei" I guess).

I've never said or heard anything but a diphthong in these words.

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-26, 20:03

Some dialects of American English avoid the sound AU, presumably because some people find it unpleasant. But without AU, "law" becomes a homophone for "la" as in "la-di-da". If you then add "-yer" to make "lawyer", you come up with LAH-yer, the same pronunciation as the word "liar". Though cynics would say that that is appropriate, "lawyer" is not remotely the only word so affected by the loss of a vowel from a language that has so many words as has English. Some years ago, a TV commercial for Mazola Corn Oil that was apparently produced in California employed an announcer whose dialect excised the vowel sound AU — which is part of both "corn" and "oil". The name of the product came out "Mazola Car Nile" (Ma.zóe.la Kor Níe.yal). That is not what he meant, and does not make sense. English is so filled with words that are close in pronunciation but radically different in meaning that it is vital we retain all the differentiation we can. The loss of a single vowel creates dozens, and perhaps even hundreds, of new homophones in a language already overloaded with homophones. We cannot afford more confusion.


http://fanetik.tripod.com/corrpron.html

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2015-08-26, 20:50

What is this bullshit? I don't have /ɔː/* but that doesn't affect /ɔɪ/. Merging /ɔɪ/ and /aɪ/ is a completely different thing.

*and indeed, find it irrationally annoying when other people do
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2015-08-26, 21:22

Whatever you do, mōdge, don't look at the guy's website. The ad-hoc respelling he uses there will make you blow a gasket.
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-26, 21:36

mōdgethanc wrote:What is this bullshit? I don't have /ɔː/* but that doesn't affect /ɔɪ/. Merging /ɔɪ/ and /aɪ/ is a completely different thing.


Yeah. I agree. I'm fully cot-caught merged, and yet "Mazola Corn Oil" sounds nothing like *"Mazola Car Nile" for me. "corn" and "car" as well as "oil" and "Nile" have different vowels for me.

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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2015-08-26, 21:49

Mars80 wrote:Yeah. I agree. I'm fully cot-caught merged, and yet "Mazola Corn Oil" sounds nothing like *"Mazola Car Nile" for me. "corn" and "car" as well as "oil" and "Nile" have different vowels for me.

The card-cord merger is highly restricted. It's a regressive feature of the St Louis dialect, for instance. (My mother and her siblings have it, my sister and I have it in a few words, and my sister's children have it not at all.)
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Re: The How do you Pronounce X Thread

Postby Koko » 2015-08-27, 3:33

I wonder if I'm the only one.

How do you pronounce "purposefully?"

I pronounce it basically like "purposely," but with a barely audible [f] as a remnant of the [fʊ] I delete in fast speech. And as inaudible that f is, when I say it without it feels awkward.

Anyways, does the same happen to anyone else? Or do you keep the <ful>? Or what?


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