Technical questions about the sound patterns of English.
23
votes
3answers
2k views
Why did only English undergo the Great Vowel Shift, making pronunciation stray so far from spelling?
Lots of people have wondered why English seems to be one of very few languages with such irregular spelling, far from its pronunciation. The answers include the Norman invasion, and the Great Vowel ...
21
votes
4answers
544 views
Why do photons and protons exhibit such anomalous behavior?
I first noticed in this answer that there is something sneaky going on with the word photon: its ‹t› is the stressed allophone of /t/, a fully aspirated [tʰ]. It does not reduce to [t] or [ɾ] the way ...
20
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies?
Written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies. Consider what the written vowels in the romance languages represent. Also, for example, consider this simple comparision between a ...
18
votes
2answers
473 views
Is there a rule for pronouncing “th” at the beginning of a word?
Consider the th in thistle versus the th in this: the former is unvoiced, while the latter is voiced.
Is there a rule or reason for the differences?
14
votes
4answers
889 views
How do you proceed from pronouncing “t” in the regular way to t-glottalization, as found in various English accents?
It's just strange to me because "t" is pronounced with the front teeth, while the glottalized "t" is produced with the back of the throat; that seems like quite a noticeable journey that couldn't have ...
14
votes
1answer
371 views
Is the pronunciation of the letters “Y” and “I” supposed to be identical?
My son and I were reciting the Spanish alphabet recently. "Y" is i griega, which means "Greek i." This got me thinking about the English letter Y and its function in our alphabet.
All of the words ...
12
votes
1answer
247 views
Why doesn't “wish” have the letter “n” in it?
The English word "wish" is akin to the German word "wünschen", the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word being "wunskijanan" (according to Wiktionary). What happened to the letter n in the middle of the ...
11
votes
1answer
294 views
Ordering of English sound changes in verbal morphology
As we all know, the Early Modern English 3sg verbal ending -eth has become -s in Modern English. This presumably happened in two steps:
Elision of the unstressed e in the final syllable
Changing ...
10
votes
5answers
420 views
Looking for a minimal triple
I am looking for a minimal triple for a particular set of phonemes. By minimal triple, I mean three actual English words that differ in one and only one phoneme between them. Examples therefore ...
9
votes
3answers
615 views
“nt” pronounced as “n” in American English (as in “Internet”): what is it called?
I know that pronouncing "t" as "d" is called a flap t, but is there a name for pronouncing "nt" as "n" in some words, as is common in American English?
Examples:
"Internet" is pronounced as "inner ...
9
votes
5answers
347 views
How is the pronunciation of r before th? Specific case: “north”
Some consonants such as n,d,t are usually alveolar in English, except that they are replaced by dentals when they are before dental fricatives (th): tenth, said this, in the….
What about "r" before ...
9
votes
2answers
506 views
Does the 18th century contraction “on't” survive phonologically in English today?
The February 18th-24th edition of The Economist has an article titled "Neurons v free will" in which the author, Anthony Gottlieb begins by quoting Dr. Johnson's statement about free will:
"Sir ...
8
votes
5answers
941 views
Are there any “-nk-” or “-nc-” words in English where there isn't a “ng” before the “k” sound?
In words like think and lank, we actually seem to be saying "thing-k" and "lang-k." Can anyone thing-k of any words or rules for sound use where this doesn't happen?
8
votes
5answers
2k views
How can I practice differentiating between the “æ” and “ɛ” sounds in English phonology?
For a non-native English speaker like me, it's always been hard to sound æ and ɛ differently. For example, "salary" and "celery" are two words that I tend to pronounce identically.
Is it OK to go on ...
8
votes
2answers
277 views
How do I represent the “-ed” in “witnessed” phonetically?
How do I represent the -ed in witnessed (or any other similar word) phonetically? Is there a reference sheet somewhere for these? I notice that other endings do not get shown in most dictionaries ...
7
votes
4answers
4k views
Syllable division of VCV pattern in words such as “salad” and “lemon”
In words such as salad /sæləd/, you have a VCV pattern (vowel-consonant-vowel), in which the first vowel is short. The syllable division of such words is generally done after the consonant, i.e, as ...
7
votes
4answers
653 views
What is the name of the phoneme produced in an upper-class Briton's pronunciation of the word “Duke”? What's different in the articulation?
When someone with a Received Pronunciation accent pronounces the word duke, as in The Duke of York, he doesn't pronounce it with a "hard" 'd', as one might pronounce the word duh, but a softer type ...
7
votes
1answer
449 views
How did the “double consonant to shorten vowel” thing come about? (“furry” vs. “fury”)
In English, a doubled consonant most commonly means "shorten the previous vowel", where "shorten" means map phonemes like this:
[aɪ] -> [i]
[oʊ] -> [ɔ]
etc
For example, fury is pronounced [fjʊri] ...
6
votes
2answers
282 views
Why is “k” added to “panic” when suffixes added (as in “panicky”)?
When adding any suffix to the word "panic," a "k" is added after the "c". Examples: panicked, panicking, panicky.
Why is this the case? Are there any other English words that do the same? I'm also ...
6
votes
2answers
316 views
Why don't “-use” verb-noun pairs obey initial stress derivation?
It's well known (and several past questions on this SE have covered) that to convert a two-syllable Latin-derived English verb into a noun, you shift the stress to the first syllable. This is ...
6
votes
1answer
621 views
Variations in the pronunciation of “ea”
Perhaps this is more of a Linguistics question, so I apologize if this is not posted in the right place.
Why is it that these words in English sound so different?
earth = /ɜrθ/ “urth”
hearth ...
5
votes
1answer
183 views
About pronouncing the 's' in plural nouns
A general rule of English pronunciation states that the 's' in plural nouns is to be pronounced as /z/ if it is preceded by a 'voiced consonant' such as /n/ or /g/, and as /s/ if it is preceded by a ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
phonetics vs. phonology [closed]
I'm reading an article about phonetics and phonology, and it clamis that they are different. But I can't locate where the difference is located. Referring to my dictionary, I can see:
Phonetics:
...
5
votes
2answers
219 views
Why is “Conquer” pronounced /'kɔŋkɚ/ but not /'kɔŋkwɚ/
In English QU is always used as a digraph.
Que pronounces the sound [K] at the ending of many words:unique, technique, antique, physique, clique, grotesque.
However, the combination QU has the ...
5
votes
3answers
213 views
Strange verb string tonal pattern
In a sentence involving a string of verbs as a list (as opposed to modifying each other), the standard American English tonal pattern for that string almost always begins high and decreases in pitch ...
3
votes
4answers
821 views
Do phonetic symbols have names in English?
I know diacritical marks have names in English: cedilla, umlaut, etc. Are there names for phonetic symbols too? How does one call the "sh" sound which is referred to by the integral sign /∫/? Or the ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Semi-vowels in English [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When is “Y” a vowel?
Why are 'w' and 'y' called semi-vowels in English?
3
votes
2answers
179 views
What is a “sounds like” thesaurus called?
A dictionary contains word definitions.
A thesaurus contains words that mean the same (synonyms).
I'm looking for a name for a word dictionary that will give you rhymes (or "sounds like") of a word.
...
3
votes
2answers
321 views
What is the articulatory logic behind the “a/an” rule in English?
Is there some articulatory reason behind why we choose to preface consonant sounds with the article a and vowel sounds with an? The reasoning I've read in the comments somewhere, I don't remember ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Sounds of the letter a
How can I know, precisely, when to differentiate the sounds of the letter a, like in: apple and vault?
2
votes
2answers
293 views
Can vowels be combined in English without forming diphthongs?
Usually all combinations of vowels in English function as diphthongs. Are there any combinations of vowels in English that do not function as diphthongs? if there are no such examples - I would be ...
2
votes
1answer
290 views
Why does the letter “a” correspond to /ɪ/ in words like “image”, “private” and “surface” (American English)?
In American English, in words ending with -age, -ate and -ace, the ‹a› correspond to /ɪ/ (short i). Examples: image, village, damageprivate, senate, separatesurface, preface, palace
(It should be ...
2
votes
1answer
208 views
What’s the difference between /ӕ/ and /ɑ/?
. . . alibis . . . appetite . . . rather . . . Mark . . . [audio source]
The first two a’s are different in their phonetic symbols in the dictionaries from the other two, but I can’t differentiate. ...
2
votes
1answer
324 views
Pronunciation of voiced “th” triggers a consonant shift of “d” and “r”
There is a class of words, mainly such as
the, this, that, these, those, though, although, then, there, thus,
the archaic thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself, thence;
which I always find myself ...
0
votes
1answer
128 views
How to pronounce the final “s” in plural nouns
Could you please help find which word below is pronounced differently from the rest with regard to the final s?
caves
marks
exams
days
I choose number 2, marks.
0
votes
3answers
163 views
When we will use soft and hard sound in 'c'? [closed]
Sometimes we use the soft sound, and sometimes the hard – but why? Is there any rule?
0
votes
0answers
105 views
Reform of English writing?
As is commonly known, English is quite notorious for having a writing system that is far removed from the actual way it is most commonly pronounced. I understand that there are important historical ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
English phonetics References [duplicate]
What are some great references on English pronunciation practices?
The book The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations was mentioned in an answer on this site.
Is it considered authoritative? What ...
-3
votes
1answer
99 views
Which best describes the English language?
English has complex morphology and less rigid phonology.
English has less complex phonology but more rigid morphology.
English has both rigid and complex morphology and phonology.
