The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread

[Estav]

Bulb, multi-, gulf, bulk, ultra-
[bʌˑɫb, mʌɫt(ʰ)i(ˑ), gʌɫf, bʌɫk, ʌɫtʃɹʌ(ˑ)]
I don't think I vocalize ɫ to [w]. I'm not sure what its exact phonetic realization is (e.g. velarized vs. uvularized vs. pharyngealized, or whether loss of the coronal articulation is possible). STRUT and LOT before ɫ are fully back vowels for me (or at least, further back than any other vowels in my inventory). I don't think STRUT is rounded here. STRUT and LOT in other contexts can be more centralized or fronted, but I still analyze both of them as underlyingly back vowels for me.

For LOT before ɫ, I'm not sure whether any rounding is possible, or something else that sounds like rounding (e.g. sulcalization). When there is no following consonant, the contrast in openness is fairly definite and stable: hull [hʌˑɫ] haul/hall [hɑːɫ] or [hɒːɫ]. (I think there is also a small difference in length in this context: the vowel in words like hull feels like it cannot naturally be extended as long as the vowel in words like hall). When there is a coda consonant after the [ɫ], the contrast in openness feels less stable to me: I feel like my pronunciations of the vowels in words like solve, salt, false and adult, pulse might overlap. So gulf [gʌɫf] and golf ([gɑɫf], [gɒɫf], [gɑʌɫf]?) are not homophones for me, but it only feels slightly off to pronounce either with the pronunciation of the other.

[bradrn]

So gulf [gʌɫf] and golf ([gɑɫf], [gɒɫf], [gɑʌɫf]?) are not homophones for me, but it only feels slightly off to pronounce either with the pronunciation of the other.

I think this applies to me as well (although I pronounce the words differently to Estav).

[Travis B.]

So it seems that none of you unambiguously have the shift here where /ʌl/ > /ɔl/ ([ʌɤ̯] > [ɒo̯]) in certain words or morphemes (for me bulb, multi-, gulf, and ultra-), but some of you have a degree of ambiguity where both unrounded and rounded realizations are permissible (this is how bulk and pulse are for me - both rounded and unrounded realizations are permissible for me).

[anteallach]

So it seems that none of you unambiguously have the shift here where /ʌl/ > /ɔl/ ([ʌɤ̯] > [ɒo̯]) in certain words or morphemes (for me bulb, multi-, gulf, and ultra-), but some of you have a degree of ambiguity where both unrounded and rounded realizations are permissible (this is how bulk and pulse are for me - both rounded and unrounded realizations are permissible for me).

I don't, but I've encountered something similar. There's a town in Warwickshire called Alcester. The traditional RP pronunciation of this name is /ˈɔːlstə(r)/, with THOUGHT in the first syllable, but like most words with older /ɔːlC/ there's also a variant with LOT, which is probably commoner these days. Anyway, I used to know someone from there who clearly regarded the name as homophonous with Ulster, suggesting a STRUT/LOT merger before /lC/.

[Travis B.]

So it seems that none of you unambiguously have the shift here where /ʌl/ > /ɔl/ ([ʌɤ̯] > [ɒo̯]) in certain words or morphemes (for me bulb, multi-, gulf, and ultra-), but some of you have a degree of ambiguity where both unrounded and rounded realizations are permissible (this is how bulk and pulse are for me - both rounded and unrounded realizations are permissible for me).

I don't, but I've encountered something similar. There's a town in Warwickshire called Alcester. The traditional RP pronunciation of this name is /ˈɔːlstə(r)/, with THOUGHT in the first syllable, but like most words with older /ɔːlC/ there's also a variant with LOT, which is probably commoner these days. Anyway, I used to know someone from there who clearly regarded the name as homophonous with Ulster, suggesting a STRUT/LOT merger before /lC/.

Just from the spelling I would have thought THOUGHT rather than LOT; of course, cot-caught-unmerged NAE varieties seem to conserve /ɔː/ better than many EngE varieties - albeit because many of them do not conserve CLOTH very well.

[mae]

-

[Kuchigakatai]

"ez"

The other day I saw Zompist joking spell the word "easy" as "e-z", and it reminded me of the spelling <ez> I sometimes see online for that same word. Is that how <ez> supposed to be pronounced, ee-zee? I find it strange that out of the many, many times I've seen it, not one of them had capital letters (namely <EZ>). This is contrast to initialisms like <BTW/btw> or <FYI/fyi>, which I regularly see in either uppercase or lowercase. All this time I was thinking that "ez" was supposed to be pronounced /i:z/ as a lazy variant of "easy" with the final -y phoneme removed (effectively becoming a homophone of "ease").

That said, there are initialisms that I've only seen in lowercase, such as <ngl> ("not gonna lie"), so I don't rule out that "ez" may actually be intended to be ee-zee.

What do you guys say?

[Pabappa]

its always /izi/, Im almost sure of it. Sometimes people are just lazy. With thr growth of text messaging especially, i think all abbreviations are going lowercase except proper nouns and maybe a few for which the capital form might be used for emphasis, such as "OK".

[Kuchigakatai]

If that's so it's a very unusual abbreviation though, because it's a single word and it continues to be in use (almost never with a hyphen, contra zompist).

[Estav]

If that's so it's a very unusual abbreviation though, because it's a single word and it continues to be in use (almost never with a hyphen, contra zompist).

It’s like other short spellings where letters are pronounced as their names like b4, c u later.

[Kuchigakatai]

It’s like other short spellings where letters are pronounced as their names like b4, c u later.

Oh, b4, right. Also m8, l8r, h8r. Those are similar, although I am struggling to think of one without numbers (aside from the single-letter ones), since that's also part of why I find "ez" weird. Something along the lines of "cr" for "seer", "tr" for "tier", "il" for "aisle", or "xl" for "to excel", but these four examples are not real.

It'd be funny to use "nml" for "animal" come to think of it, even if it isn't a perfect match...

[Linguoboy]

"ur" for "your".

"ppl" for "people" almost works if read as an initialism.

Supposedly "yf" is used to abbreviate "wife" but it can also stand for "young friend", "you feel", and a host of other things.

[Ryusenshi]

ban
bank
panko

Context:

More: show

I saw this post on Tocharian Irredentism, about /æ/ before /ŋ/.
https://yeli-renrong.tumblr.com/post/19 ... -epistemic
It claims that in American accents, /æ/ is typically [æj] before /ŋ/ (compared to [eə] before other nasals). I have no doubt that this pronunciation exists and isn't rare, but I wonder how widespread it is. Do some Americans say bank as [beəŋk]? In California, I'd expect bank to be [beɪŋk] instead.

[bradrn]

I don’t have any sort of American accent, but here’s how I would say those:

[bæn]
[bæŋkʰ]
[pʰæŋkʰɞ͡ʉ] (I’ve never heard this word before, but that’s how I think I would say it)

[Linguoboy]

ban
bank
panko

Bank and panko feel diphthongal to me, but not ban. I find it hard to pinpoint what the diphthong is, however. One thing I discovered in college is that the nucleus of my /eː/ is lower than [e], so at best I might have [ɛɪ̯]. It's very possible it could be [æɪ̯] (I have to really draw out the vowel in order to come to grips with the exact quality and I may be distorting it in the process). It's for sure not [eə] because that's a local dialectal pronunciation I've learned to mock.

[Travis B.]

[pɛ̃(ː)n]~[pẽ(ː)ə̃n]
[pẽʔk]
[ˈpʰẽko(ː)]

[Linguoboy]

TIL that Columbus, Ohio lies at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers. I got the pronunciation of "Scioto" right on my second guess (my natural urge is to pronounce it as if it were Italian) but I munged "Olentangy". Let's see how the rest of you do!

[Travis B.]

/siˈoʊtoʊ/ and /ˌoʊlənˈteɪŋɡi/

[bradrn]

[sɐ͡iˈɞ͡ʉtˢɞ͡ʉ] and [ˈɞ͡ʉlənˌtʰæ̃ˑnd͡ʒi]

[anteallach]

My guesses were / saɪˈoʊtoʊ/ and /ɒlɪnˈtaŋi/.