Zompist Bboard Again

Does anyone else have a consistent phonemic contrast between enable and unable ? Sure, [ɪ] vs. [ə]. (Maybe even [ə:], the vowel in un- is longer.) Now, does anyone else who has the weak vowel merger still not merge these two words? I don’t have the weak vowel merger, but unable has a full STRUT vow...

Interestingly, I do have stopping of /T D/ initially, but I definitely don't have NCVS. This is common in lower registers of many English varieties; e.g. it is common in urban dialects in the Great Lakes region. It's also common in southern Irish accents, of course. And in the Caribbean (though IIR...

Yes, generally English speakers will have some distinction there using a combination of glottal reinforcement of the fortis stop, a longer vowel before the lenis one and the fortis stop itself being longer.

This is what I would expect from someone trying to pronounce 'Pabst' as spelled in English, rather than as borrowed from German. I come from a part of the country where German spelling rules are not followed. There's a place name Wiehle that's pronounced wheelie . In DC, people just have to memoriz...

How do y'all pronounce colonel? I've always pronounced it /ˈkɚnəl/, but I've heard several people pronounce it as it's spelled, and it got me wondering which is correct. It's always [ˈkʰɝnəl̪] for me, which incidentally also rhymes with kernel , but I grew up in a military environment, so it's a wo...

I personally regularly pronounce two with an affricate, as [tsʲʷʰy(ː)]. Really [ts], like German zu ? Or a noisy release which isn't really an [s]? I sometimes have a "slit fricative" realisation of intervocalic /t/ (a bit like the Irish English and Scouse sound, though they use it in wor...

I found that sit and Sid were about the same length as syllables, with a slightly longer vowel before /d/ cancelled out by the consonant itself being shorter.

OTOH seed is considerably longer than seat (which is similar to Sid).

I personally regularly pronounce two with an affricate, as [tsʲʷʰy(ː)]. Really [ts], like German zu ? Or a noisy release which isn't really an [s]? I sometimes have a "slit fricative" realisation of intervocalic /t/ (a bit like the Irish English and Scouse sound, though they use it in wor...

Spanish names for our current royals still get used: Carlos III , Guillermo de Gales (with children Jorge de Gales, Carlota de Gales and Luis de Gales), etc. There are limits: at least on Spanish Wikipedia they haven't come up with Spanish translations of Archie and Lilibet for the children of Enriq...

Similarly, the dialect here has significantly more frequent dorsal realizations of /r/ than most NAE varieties, even though it is common for modern NAE varieties to have pharyngealization of /r/. Are you sure about this? My understanding is that "bunched" r, which surely counts as dorsal,...

I realised last night that I seem to have initial /nj/ in near and nearer . Anyone else? Just those words? Not in "nearest"? Not in other NEAR words like the name Niamh? JAL Niamh isn't a near word (at least it the UK). It's /nɪjv/, with FLEECE – there's no (former) /r/ to cause NEAR I ag...

Does anyone else here speak or is otherwise familiar with any English variety which is frequently h-dropping in grammar words but normally h-preserving in content words? I ask because I have not seen such a pattern described for other English varieties but such a pattern exists in the dialect here,...

I just realized that I pronounce /ju/ as [ɥy(ː)] or [ɥy̆ŭ̯]~[ɥyu̯] depending on environment and any preceding consonant also gets labialized (e.g. cure when pronounced carefully is really [cʷʰɥ̥{y̆ŭ̯,yu̯}ʁˤ] for me). That's pretty fronted. JAL Probably not unusual, though. I realise Travis is talki...

Travis B. wrote: ↑Sun Nov 09, 2025 10:05 am I hadn't even heard that acorn is seen by some as a compound until it was mentioned here.

I suppose the pronunciation with two unreduced vowels can make it feel like a compound, but I'd never thought of it that way either.

But it is Teh Nature of native English-speakers to butcher loans! We're not Germans, who attempt to emulate French nasal vowels! https://www.oed.com/information/understanding-entries/pronunciation/british-english-pronunciations/?tl=true Note the entries for gratin and salon . And yes, I would alway...

But it is Teh Nature of native English-speakers to butcher loans! We're not Germans, who attempt to emulate French nasal vowels! https://www.oed.com/information/understanding-entries/pronunciation/british-english-pronunciations/?tl=true Note the entries for gratin and salon . And yes, I would alway...

alice wrote: ↑Sun Oct 26, 2025 3:18 pm "operating theatre", as a plain "theatre" might be confused with live performances or war, although some might argue that's what it is on some level .

... but it could be plain "theatre" if the context makes it clear.

I assumed that that was an example of sinistrisme . (Indeed, although the article is mainly about France, the Portuguese party is linked to at the end.) In Denmark, the Venstre , whose name means 'Left', is now a centrist if not centre-right party - it was leftist by the standards of the 19th centu...

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 17, 2025 9:22 am Also, in Portuguese, democratico social means center-right rather than center-left politics.

I assumed that that was an example of sinistrisme. (Indeed, although the article is mainly about France, the Portuguese party is linked to at the end.)

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Oct 16, 2025 10:24 am Do you guys have /d/ in seventy and ninety?

Yes in seventy, no in ninety.