Syrup

[Steve]

I pronounce ''syrup'' as ''sur up'' with the vowel in ''bird'', ''burn'' and ''fir'', not ''seerup''.

[Don]

Geist wrote:
There doesn't seem to be any geographic pattern regarding the pronunciation of "syrup" - it really does differ from individual to individual.

Right. It doesn't to be as regional a difference as some words or pronunciations, but I would imagine region still plays some role in many cases. I almost always hear "sir"-up [ˈs3˞əp] here in California, but a few people do say "sear"-up [ˈsɪɹəp].[/quote]

That's interesting, svenska84. In my accent ''syrup'' is not pronounced ''sir up'' not ''sear up'', but with the sound of the ''irr'' in ''mirror'' plus ''up''. i.e. /sIr@p/. I'm from South Wales. Are you Kirk from Antimoon? If you're not, but you've been to antimoon, you've probably seen me post there.

[Kirk]

That's interesting, svenska84. In my accent ''syrup'' is not pronounced ''sir up'' not ''sear up'', but with the sound of the ''irr'' in ''mirror'' plus ''up''. i.e. /sIr@p/. I'm from South Wales. Are you Kirk from Antimoon? If you're not, but you've been to antimoon, you've probably seen me post there.

Hey Don--yup, it's me Yeah, it's relatively common (tho certainly not universal) to say "sir-up" in North America.

[Geist]

Some people (especially TV new journalists) will pronounce the -stan in Uzbekistan as "stahn".

As opposed to what?

I would guess as opposed to having "-stan" rhyme with "can." So, in IPA [stæn] as compared to [stɑn].

I see. I have heard it that way (though not in my region), now that you mention it.

[JoeK]

reading this tripped me out.

I say "syrup" as either "seer-up," "sur-up," or even "s'yurup"

in the third, "yurup" sounding like "Europe."

Upon further research I found this one out: My mother has always said it as "sur-up," and my father as "seer-up." She comes from a town in Texas with no discernible accent whatsoever -- it's so flat they even lack inflection, and he from a town in Illinois where people say "he spilt oynch koyl-ait in tha cah."

These people have really screwed me up.

<i>Not withstanding the fact that I also come from a town where people say "crown" instead of "Crayon," and "meer-oh" instead of "mirror."</i>

[Kirk]

reading this tripped me out.

I say "syrup" as either "seer-up," "sur-up," or even "s'yurup"

in the third, "yurup" sounding like "Europe."

Upon further research I found this one out: My mother has always said it as "sur-up," and my father as "seer-up." She comes from a town in Texas with no discernible accent whatsoever -- it's so flat they even lack inflection, and he from a town in Illinois where people say "he spilt oynch koyl-ait in tha cah."

These people have really screwed me up.

<i>Not withstanding the fact that I also come from a town where people say "crown" instead of "Crayon," and "meer-oh" instead of "mirror."</i>

I lived in the Dallas-Ft.Worth metro area for several years as a kid and heard "crown" for "crayon" commonly there. Then when we moved to California the kids just called them "colors."

Your pronunciatin of "syrup" is pretty interesting. But I'm gonna be a picky linguist and remind you all places have accents, so maybe by "no discernible accent" you mean it doesn't sound "Texan," instead being closer to that nebulous concept of "General American." Anyway, that was my experience in the DFW metro area, as well--overall I don't remember the accents sounding very stereotypically "Texan," altho there were exceptions, of course.

[JoeK]

I guess by "no discernible accent" I meant an El Paso accent.

[Kirk]

I guess by "no discernible accent" I meant an El Paso accent.

Yeah, El Paso may as well be considered the Southwest, as it's barely in Texas anyway. I haven't spent considerable time in El Paso (tho I passed thru it often on Intersate 10 while going from Dallas-Ft.Worth to visit our relatives in Phoenix when my family was still living in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area) but I would bet its dialectal features sound more Southwestern or Western than what is typically thought of as "Texan" (which obviously, for better or worse, many Texans don't even speak).

I need to do a dialectal road trip thru the US and Canada someday. I wanna analyze as many different regional accents as I can. In my daily life I almost exclusively come into contact with Californians so the chances I've had to be out of state or to meet people here from out of state I've always been eager to listen and see what they do the same or differently as compared to people here.

[Kirk]

In the UK, we say 'poh-tay-toh' but 'toh-mah-toh'.

Yes, we are very strange.

Yes, I always thought that was a fun characteristic of UK English. Variation in /æ/ and /ɑ/ can be interesting in different English-speaking countries. My Canadian relatives say /pæstə/ and /lævə/ for "pasta" and "lava" while I have /pɑstə/ and /lɑvə/. I believe I've heard UK speakers use /pæstə/, as well.