Timeline for Why are there two pronunciations for "either"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
20 events
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| Apr 30, 2019 at 4:06 | history | edited | Laurel♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 23, 2015 at 21:36 | history | edited | herisson | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added IPA pronunciation, corrected spelling of "bastardised"
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| May 30, 2013 at 6:57 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @Noldorin IPA, I confess is bothersome to memorise but it is r useful when looking up a word and you want to know its pronunciation. I'd hazard a guess that all bilingual and the majority of monolingual dictionaries employ the same phonemic system. | |
| Jan 9, 2012 at 20:46 | comment | added | Noldorin | @tchrist: The problem is, IPA is so useless in just about every other walk of life. I spend time here out of my own will to help, and I fear investing the time into learning IPA is significant and of little return. Especially when your average person doesn't understand it either. Nonetheless, if I do decide it's useful at some point, do you suggest any learning resources? | |
| Jan 8, 2012 at 17:09 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @Noldorin You really need to learn IPA. Not only is it the standard form, it’s much, much easier to use than these ridiculous see-it-and-spell-it systems, which never work at all. I was aghast to find people here using anything else. | |
| Sep 7, 2011 at 17:58 | comment | added | Noldorin | @Jonathan, Giorgio: I'm afraid I don't understand IPA, but I think that /ˈaɪðər/ is correct for British English. | |
| Sep 7, 2011 at 8:40 | comment | added | Giorgio | I am Italian. At school I was taught that /ˈaɪðər/ is British English and /ˈiːðər/ is American English. Since we were learning British English our teacher encouraged us to use /ˈaɪðər/. I am not sure if all this is correct. | |
| Apr 25, 2011 at 0:29 | comment | added | user3217 | @noldorin Which phonetic alphabet are you using? Depending on that, your transcription of “either” could be read as either /ˈaɪðər/ or /ˈiːðər/. | |
| Feb 3, 2011 at 3:07 | comment | added | Noldorin | @oosterwal: Hah, yes. English is unfortunately not a very predicatlbe language phonetically, by any means... | |
| Feb 3, 2011 at 0:29 | comment | added | oosterwal | @Noldorin: I sit corrected. The 'ie' at the end of 'cookie' definitely makes a long e sound. | |
| Feb 3, 2011 at 0:25 | comment | added | Noldorin |
@oosterwal: That's not at all true. The simple "reversal" you propose has no basis in history I'm afraid. English and German share a common ancestor (in the early first millennium AD?) and this feature of pronunciation remains common to them/unchanged since. English pronunciation is of course much more variable, largely thanks to multiple sources. Note that pie is of Latin origin.
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| Feb 2, 2011 at 23:32 | comment | added | oosterwal | In German, 'ie' is vocalized as a long e and 'ei' is vocalized as a long i. In English, 'ie' is typically vocalized as a long i (as in pie) so it seems reasonable that 'ei' should be vocalized as a long e. I won't get into the Dutch pronunciation of 'ei' because Americans can't form that diphthong. ;-) | |
| Aug 23, 2010 at 12:13 | comment | added | Noldorin | @itrekkie: True, they are the closest. But Scots in particular is so similar to English and has evolved in tandem that it doesn't say much. | |
| Aug 22, 2010 at 19:11 | comment | added | Charlie | What about poor old Frisian or Scots as relatives as English? | |
| Aug 14, 2010 at 19:25 | vote | accept | Jagd | ||
| Aug 13, 2010 at 19:46 | history | edited | Noldorin | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 89 characters in body
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| Aug 13, 2010 at 19:39 | comment | added | Noldorin | @Jagd: Glad to help. I'm no linguist, but I've heard this on good authority and it seems to verify. :) | |
| Aug 13, 2010 at 19:00 | comment | added | Jagd | @Noldorin - you're a well of knowledge! This is exactly what I was looking for. I had a suspicion that \ˈī-thər\ was probably the original pronunciation, but I had nothing to ground it on. | |
| Aug 13, 2010 at 17:53 | comment | added | Alan Hogue | Hey, if it was good enough for Beowulf, it's good enough for everyone! | |
| Aug 13, 2010 at 16:34 | history | answered | Noldorin | CC BY-SA 2.5 |