Timeline for In the word "Scent", is the S or the C silent?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 7, 2014 at 8:44 | comment | added | nohat | I think an even more telling experiment would be to take one of these people who claim to have a distinction, record them reading an extended passage which uses all the different forms a few times, extract the individual words from the passage, and ask them to identify which extracted word is which. I'd be willing to bet they'll be statistically no better than random. | |
| Sep 22, 2014 at 13:59 | comment | added | Code Whisperer | @talrnu I think all the remains is for you to carry out your experiment | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 16:26 | comment | added | SevenSidedDie | As Canadian who doesn't hear this difference, I condescend to dissent. Perhaps it's regional, perhaps it's a hypercorrection. :) | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 16:25 | comment | added | talrnu | Approach a random person, speak any permutation of the phrase "Cent sent scent." (e.g. alternately "Sent scent cent."), and then ask them how the phrase is written. Do you really think they'll be able to naturally (i.e. without prefacing with a discussion about how "sc" is/might be pronounced) determine which of the three words is spelled "scent"? I'm inclined to think not. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 14:35 | comment | added | AmeliaBR | Hmm, another Canadian who believes that sent/scent/cent are pronounced differently; perhaps it isn't just my affectation after all. That said, I'm not sure that ascent vs assent is a good comparison: that could be interpretted as the difference between a-scent and as-sent, the two separate s sounds in the second word blurring into the stronger hissing sound. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 13:20 | history | answered | Code Whisperer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |