Timeline for Words like "threshold"?
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22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Dec 6, 2014 at 14:32 | history | edited | tchrist♦ |
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| May 27, 2014 at 13:29 | answer | added | Jon Hanna | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 23, 2014 at 16:43 | answer | added | McGurk | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 20, 2014 at 19:34 | comment | added | Andy | You might be looking for the concept of ambisyllabicity. | |
| May 20, 2014 at 6:24 | comment | added | Kris | Good question, bad example. oxforddictionaries.com/us/pronounce/american_english/threshold | |
| May 19, 2014 at 23:06 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @WS2: Ahem. I said we there because to all intents and purposes, I'm a Cockney myself (all that claptrap about being born within the sound of Bow Bells notwithstanding). Sure, 'eigh ʔ een' will be used sometimes, but I have the definite feeling the glottal stop is far less likely there than in, for example, 'wa ʔ er' (water). | |
| May 19, 2014 at 22:27 | comment | added | WS2 | @FumbleFingers But cockneys don't enunciate any t. 'Eigh-een', 'Fow-een' for fourteen. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 22:04 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @WS2: I don't know if we're being influenced by the fact that "hypothetically" there are actually two /t/'s in eighteen, but it seems to me most "Estuary English" speakers probably would enunciate one. We are actually capable of doing this, stereotypes notwithstanding (unlike the French, most of whom find it extremely difficult if not impossible to enunciate a leading aspirated /h/ :) | |
| May 19, 2014 at 21:07 | comment | added | WS2 | @ColinFine Right, eigh-teen. Yes I think that's how I say it too, 'Eigh-een' would be cockney, wouldn't it! | |
| May 19, 2014 at 21:07 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Looking up threshold in the OED, the second element of the word never had an /h/ until Middle English, and even then it was as often wold, fold or other possibilities. It seems to me that the /h/ arose from either folk-etymology on the second element, or the 'h' in the spelling. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 21:02 | comment | added | Colin Fine | I believe the OP is talking about letters, not sounds. Historically there were certainly two /t/, one in each syllable; and some people still pronounce them that way. But for people who pronounce it as I do, the letter notes only one consonant. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 21:01 | comment | added | WS2 | It is surprising that threshold is spelled in this way, especially when one considers the origin of the term. I believe it goes back to the practice of laying straw (thresh) on the floor. The threshold was the bar which held it in place, and kept it in the house. thus one would have expected 'thresh-hold'. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:59 | comment | added | Colin Fine | @WS2: No, I say "eigh-teen" (the /t/ is aspirated, showing that it is in the onset). | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:59 | comment | added | Dɑvïd | @ColinFine - I don't think I am, actually. :) (One of "those" people, I mean.) It's just that "eighteen" has what I would think of as a double-duty consonant, on the analogy of OP's example. Cf. OED etymology: "Old English e(a)htatýne , -téne , corresponds to Old Frisian achtatîne , Old Saxon ahtotian , ahtetehan (Dutch achttien ), Old High German ahtozehan,... Old Norse áttján ..., Gothic *ahtau-taíhun ; < Old Germanic *ahtau , ahtô , eight adj. and n. + *tehun ten adj., n., and adv.; for the divergent English form of the second element, see -teen comb. form." | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:56 | comment | added | WS2 | @ColinFine Do you really say 'eight-een'? I had not imagined you with a cockney accent? | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:54 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | An example of a single letter that corresponds or is ostensibly meant to represent more than one morpheme: the t in eighth (and height(h) if you're one of those who pronounce it with a final th sound). Kind of related or similar is how the i in Maria and Mariah are pronounced differently, even though it's the same name. (Edit: David and Colin got there with almost the same example while I was typing and trying to think of other examples.) | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:52 | review | First posts | |||
| May 19, 2014 at 22:33 | |||||
| May 19, 2014 at 20:49 | comment | added | Colin Fine | @David: I assume from your question that you are one of the people who pronounce a double (or long) /t/ in that word. Many people do not, including me. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:47 | comment | added | Dɑvïd | You mean like "eighteen"? Could be a long list - are list questions on topic? | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:44 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | How do you mean the h is unstressed? Consonants cannot receive stress in English (or nearly any other language in the world), so I'm guessing stress if not what you're really trying to refer to… but I can't figure out what you are trying to refer to. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 20:35 | history | asked | Juan Sebastian Lozano | CC BY-SA 3.0 |