Zompist Bboard Again

Introspecting a bit: - Pronouncing being as the expected [ˈbiːɪŋ(g)] feels a bit artificial to me. I think I often use monosyllabic forms like [bɪəŋ(g)] or [bɪːŋ(g)], with the same sort of smoothing which occurs in theatre or vehicle . I think this is genuinely irregular: it doesn't apply to e.g. se...

/ælk/ is exempt if followed by a vowel or semivowel, which causes /k/ to fall in a different syllable rather than ME /alk/ (> /aulk/ (> ModE /ɔːk/)) falling in a stressed final syllable*. * Note that this is rather sensitive to morphemic structure, e.g. stalking /ˈstɔːkɪŋ/, which has undergone this...

Why didn't talc undergo the same al > aul / _(C)# change as talk (with /aulk/ later becoming /ɔːk/, as also found in words like caulk , chalk , and balk )? Was it borrowed too late to undergo this change (mind you the periodization for MFr is generally later than ME, with MFr considerably overlappi...

What happens in dialects of English in other similar cases? What happens with weak plurals? Do weak monosyllabic plurals, like the old Modern English kine and eyne , get used in noun stacks? What happens in dialects in which the redundant ///z/// is omitted after numbers - is the singular or the pl...

On that note, how do you guys pronounce en masse and en route ? I have /ˌɑmˈmæs/ [ˌãːmˈmɛs̟] and /ˌɑnˈrut/ [ˌãːnˈʁʷˤuʔ(t)]* myself. * I never say */ˌɑnˈraʊt/ [ˌãːnˈʁʷˤʌ̆ŏ̯ʔ(t)] myself even though I normally vary between /raʊt/ ]ʁʷˤʌ̆ŏ̯ʔ(t)] and /rut/ [ʁʷˤuʔ(t)] for route **. ** except for some exam...

FWIW, my (American English) dictionary says the plural is Grand Prix but allows the [pri:z] pronunciation. Wiktionary thinks the plural is Grands Prix. Wiktionary is wrong once more. Whoever put that in probably took it directly from the French without checking whether any native English-speakers a...

The idea that a language variety such as AusE doesn't have fully-open vowels always confuses me... Eh? We do have open vowels — STRUT being one such. I think the reference is to the use of the [ɐ] symbol to transcribe it, which is a bit confusing to those of us who think of this symbol as represent...

Ah! Of course, you’re TRAP–BATH unsplit. That makes sense now. So am I, but I'm still not sure what /fæ:m/ is meant to mean. Well, the vowel that I usually see transcribed as /æ/ is in Scottish English usually pronounced as something more like [ɐ]. (Unlike other unsplit varieties where it really is...

Is /fæ:m/ how Scots perceive the AusE pronunciaton of farm , as bradrn says? If you take me as characteristic of "Scots", then yes :-) I should probably have used [broad phonetic] rather than /phonemic/ transcriptions there. Ah! Of course, you’re TRAP–BATH unsplit. That makes sense now. S...

How do you guys really pronounce Illinois and milk ? I normally pronounce the former with DRESS, even though from paying attention to everyone around me it seems many people pronounce it with KIT as spelled (even though I was sure that the DRESS pronunciation was the 'correct' one for the dialect h...

I have a feeling that when I ordered one in Berlin a few years ago I said something like [ˈkʰɔ̈ɹɪvʊɐst], i.e. my English curry plus a definitely German Wurst. I might be misremembering, but I wouldn't have known which German vowel to use.

Lērisama wrote: ↑Sat Aug 08, 2026 10:40 am I have /ˈkʰʌɹɪjˌvɜːst/ [ˈkʰʌɹ̠ʷɪjvɜ̰ˑs̪ʔ] in English, replacing the curry with the equivalent English.

Any views (from you or anyone else) of how you'd pronounce it when speaking German?

Currywurst?

Traditionally German names are pronounced here with initial /kn-/ and /gn-/. Is that an arial feature, perhaps because there's a lot of people with that descent? I can't imagine that goes for the entire US? Anyone from the UK that can weigh in about what's usual there? JAL Well, we don't have that ...

i just remembered about how pneumonic, mnemonic, and gnomonic are all pronounced nearly the same (at least in my accent), with the only differences being the quality of the initial vowel, which in all three is often just turned into a schwa (though for me they're all already phonemic schwas, just d...

What vowels do people have in the words "paltry" and "poultry"? I have /V/ (STRUT) in both, but just realized that the latter is probably a hypercorrection and should be /o/ (GOAT). Both have the pre-/l/ allophone of my GOAT (which is something like [öo]). For the words in Travi...

Suppose that in Australia, there would be an election where the result would be such that the most practical way to form a government would be for the Labor Party to team up with one or more smaller left-wing parties. How would Australians themselves call the result? (Not counting unfriendly words ...

How would you translate "small pitch" into Irish? That is, with "pitch" as in "playing field for a sport". My very limited online research made me think it should be something like páirc beag , but I know nothing about the Irish language, so perhaps someone who does kn...

Natural and dangerous in quick speech (but not slow speech) are indeed examples of /tʃr/ and /dʒr/ for me, and I merge them with /tr/ and /dr/. I do not affricate the /tr/ in beetroot but I do palatalize and affricate the /str/ in restroom and I affricate the /dr/ in bedroom . Note that I do not af...

American versus British traditions (with soccer...uhm...football being traditionally a British sport)? I don't think that covers it, since the US has "managers" in baseball and "(head) coaches" in football and basketball. True. It was even one of the points in a classic George C...