The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread

[ˈdʲeɰʌ̜ ʔɾul̪]

Hi,
I'm feeling an urgent need to revive this thread.
How do you pronounce continuous? My friend argues the <uou> part is just one syllable bc her mom has been to the US and picked that pronunciation there.

[Travis B.]

[kʰn̩ˈtʰɘ̃ː(n)juːwɘs]

[Linguoboy]

Continuous in three syllables sounds definitely odd to me.

How do you stress penetrative? I put primary stress on the initial syllable and secondary on the penult but a friend of mine does the opposite.

[Pabappa]

How do you stress penetrative? I put primary stress on the initial syllable and secondary on the penult

Same as you, but I would try to use penetrating or some other word if the context allowed since any way I pronounced it it would still feel weird.

[bbbosborne]

[ˈpʰɛnəˌt͡ʃʰɹeːɪɾɪv]


how do you pronounce plural words that end in /sts/? it's one of the most uncomfortable clusters ever, and i've heard people who flat out don't even say the /ts/.

also:
Joan
vase
phased

[Linguoboy]

how do you pronounce plural words that end in /sts/? it's one of the most uncomfortable clusters ever, and i've heard people who flat out don't even say the /ts/.

I once had a conversation with a couple of roofers from Chicago who had reanalysed joist to joice in their speech, presumably via a plural form [ˈʤɔɪsɨz].

[Travis B.]

penetrative: [ˈpʰɜ̃ː(n)ɘˌtʃʰɻ͡ʁeɾɘːf]
Joan: [tʃõ(ː)(n)]
vase: [ves]
phased: [feːsʲtʲ]

I commonly reduce /sts/ to [sʲː] or [sː] (which depends upon whether I really analyze it as /sts/ or /ss/, because final /st/ (but not /zd/ despite that I pronounce it as [sʲtʲ]) regularly becomes [s] IMD (where /st/ in medial positions commonly becomes [sʲː] or, if palatalized further, [ɕː]), and this can be applied before the /s/ from an affix is applied).

[Travis B.]

how do you pronounce plural words that end in /sts/? it's one of the most uncomfortable clusters ever, and i've heard people who flat out don't even say the /ts/.

I once had a conversation with a couple of roofers from Chicago who had reanalysed joist to joice in their speech, presumably via a plural form [ˈʤɔɪsɨz].

As I mention in my post above, this could be a direct regular change of final /st/ > [s] - I have this in my dialect.

[Travis B.]

I should say that /st/ > [s] seems to be highly lexicalized (and limited to very common words), in that it is actually /st/ > /s/, i.e. the change is frozen into the underlying form. Words that are not very common tend more IMD to have [sʲː] rather than [s] for final /st/.

[Nortaneous]

/kənˈtinjəwəs/ [kn̩ˈtʰɪnjuəs]
/ˈpenəˌtrejɾɨv/
/dʒown/
/vejs/
/fejzd/

----

catch
can (modal)
can (noun)

[bbbosborne]

[kaːʔt͡ʃʰ]

[kæːn] at beginning
[kɪn] elsewhere

[kæːn]

also, how about:
dolphin

[Zaarin]

catch [kʰɛt͡ʃ]
can (all uses) [kʰæn]
dolphin [ˈdɒɫfɪn ~ ˈdɑɫfɪn]

[Travis B.]

dolphin: [ˈtɒo̯fn̩(ː)]~[ˈtɒo̯fɘ̃(ː)(n)]

[Linguoboy]

dolphin

I never thought of it before, but I think in my native informal speech it lacks /l/.

[bbbosborne]

dolphin

I never thought of it before, but I think in my native informal speech it lacks /l/.

me too! i'd say my pronunciation is nearly identical to travis b., surprisingly

[Linguoboy]

me too! i'd say my pronunciation is nearly identical to travis b., surprisingly

Really? He has an /l/ there but it's vocalised. I just have [ɑ ~ ɒ].

[Zaarin]

me too! i'd say my pronunciation is nearly identical to travis b., surprisingly

Really? He has an /l/ there but it's vocalised. I just have [ɑ ~ ɒ].

That's how I used to pronounce dauphin, but now I use French pronunciation [dofɛ͂]. I definitely have /l/ in dolphin, but to my knowledge I never L-vocalize.

[Linguoboy]

That's how I used to pronounce dauphin, but now I use French pronunciation [dofɛ͂].

Same.

I would really need someone else to confirm for me which pronunciation of dolphin I use most often, since both sound "normal" to me. I'm working off the assumption that my initial pronunciation was without /l/ and I acquired it later since (1) that's the case with other words and (b) in every case I can think of where popular variants with and without /l/ occur (e.g. almond, balk, salmon), I strongly prefer the /l/-less variant. E.g. /ˈsælmən/ for me is a writer, not a fish.

[Vijay]

E.g. /ˈsælmən/ for me is a writer, not a fish.

Not Salman Khan??

[Linguoboy]

E.g. /ˈsælmən/ for me is a writer, not a fish.

Not Salman Khan??

Good point. Let me amend that to "a writer or a terrible actor".