Questions tagged [pronunciation]
for questions about the sound, stress, or intonation of spoken words.
2,591
questions
-1
votes
1
answer
37
views
Why is the word ‘dictionary’ pronounced differently in British and American English [closed]
Pronunciation of the word 'dictionary'
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/dictionary
from the page agove, in British pronunciation, the /n/ sound is not connected to the schwa ...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
33
views
Is it 'a' L-formula or 'an' L-formula? [duplicate]
In Logic & Mathematics textbooks, the terms 'L-formula', or 'L-term', or 'L-theory' are used. (Though for math, it is reserved to mathematical logic.)
I've witnessed it first-hand, and I'm sure ...
- 191
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
Pronunciation of "wind" [closed]
Could I ask how to pronunce "wind"? Here "i" should be pronunced to be "i" or "ai"? Thanks!
- 21
3
votes
0
answers
73
views
Why do some folk songs from 1930s Appalachia pronounce the word 'Jordan' as 'Jerdon'?
In two songs I've listened to recently, "River of Jordan" by The Carter Family (1929-1932) and "Wayfaring Stranger" by Doc Watson (1992, but was almost certainly first played much ...
- 138
4
votes
1
answer
468
views
(Mis-)pronunciation of ‘accoutrement’ that ends in -L not in -NT?
I’m interested in the apparent mispronunciation of the word accoutrement [əˈkutrəmənt].
Although it’s not a word I encounter daily, when occasioned upon, I often hear the speaker pronounce it as [...
- 141
0
votes
0
answers
42
views
Is there a difference between the pronunciation of long-ass and long gas?
I know that final -⟨ng⟩ is pronounced /ŋ/ (in most dialects), but I'm wondering what happens when the intensifier "ass" comes after the /ŋ/ sound of "long". Does the pronunciation ...
- 101
1
vote
1
answer
57
views
How is "soc" (UK abbr for Society) pronounced?
How is "Soc" (shortened form of "Society") pronounced in England?
I'm reading a piece of fiction set at an English university, and they keeping talking about joining societies, ...
- 1,003
0
votes
1
answer
63
views
Is the letter u silent in draught?
I know that this word is pronounced as /dra:ft/ but do we consider the u to be silent?
I have heard of 2 rules for silent u
1-when u comes after g
2-when u comes before a vowel
but none of them apply ...
- 3
3
votes
1
answer
93
views
Why are mirage and visage pronounced differently? [closed]
Why do we say mirage with an ah sound but visage with a j sound? I thought it was because of the origin of the word but they both came from French.
- 31
0
votes
1
answer
56
views
Pronunciation of "delivered yesterday", why "ed" not pronounced?
In this video, there is this sentence at 2:18:
Your parcel should've been delivered yesterday.
I have listened to this sentence many times, it seems that the "ed" after delivered is not ...
- 1
2
votes
1
answer
213
views
Variants of the /æ/ sound?
This YouTube channel asserts that the /æ/ sound has four variants depending on the consonant that follows it; /æ/ in apple and /æ/ in mango should sound a bit different, for instance.
https://www....
- 123
1
vote
1
answer
83
views
Do prefixes change the prounciation of stem?
I know some words which have suffixes and these suffixes change the pronunciation of the stem.
For example
sociopath sociopathy (you can check the pronunciations and you will realize that there are a ...
- 137
1
vote
0
answers
42
views
Did the English place name "Frome" used to be pronounced as it is spelled?
The English town Frome is famously pronounced as "froom". The following is two stanzas from the dedication of G.K. Chesterton's poem Ballad of the White Horse, from 1911.
Up through an ...
- 11
1
vote
4
answers
127
views
What accent can I put on "u" to make it sound like "you"? [closed]
I have a made up name, "Bunar," and I want the u to sound like you, rather than oo. Is there an accent I can put above u to tell readers to pronounce it this way?
edit: feel free to explain ...
- 129
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why does “revocable” have first-syllable stress?
Read the following “canonical” sets of related words, and notice the (uncontroversial) stress patterns:
Renew, renewable, renewably
Regret, regrettable, regrettably
Repeat, repeatable, repeatably
(...
- 433
0
votes
0
answers
37
views
When is it OK to pronounced a voiced th like a /d/ instead of a /ð/?
As I learned in Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? native speakers sometimes pronounce the voiced th as a /d/ instead of a /ð/ like in the words "the", &...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
78
views
Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? [closed]
In Can we pronounce the 'th' sound as a d? one answer explained that native speakers often don't pronounce the voiced th excactly like how it ideally should sound.
What I have noticed over ...
- 131
2
votes
1
answer
95
views
How do you pronounce RND (Research and Development)? [closed]
Apparently, RND is an acronym for Research and Development. I'm used to R&D.
How do you pronounce RND? Would it be "are and dee", like the form I'm used to? Or would it be "are en ...
- 903
7
votes
1
answer
941
views
Does any dialect merge "cold" and "culled"?
I'm a native American English speaker who pronounces cold/culled, colt/cult, and told/toad the same way (first word in each pair with weak L compared to Merriam-Webster). It only recently became clear ...
- 173
0
votes
3
answers
68
views
Example word that is a homograph and preposition
My research involves the study of word frequency in American English and the importance of context when connecting text representations to different speech representations.
I would like to know if ...
- 103
3
votes
3
answers
106
views
Do American pronounce "she looked at me" as /ʃiː lʊkt æt mi/ or /ʃiː lʊkd æt mi/?
Although some people say that flap-t [ɾ] is used if phonemic /t/ is between
two vowels as in matter [ˈmædəɹ], I think that definition is
incomplete because if phonemic /t/ occurs before a stressed ...
- 4,533
2
votes
0
answers
83
views
Is this pronunciation transcript understandable for people who know British English?
I wonder how to write down the pronunciation of words in English without using IPA. Sometimes on the internet I have seen something like this:
It is pronounced like uh-aw-to-muh-tuh
Or
It is ...
- 29
0
votes
0
answers
61
views
Is there a name for how some people pronounce their s slightly differently?
I've noticed how some people pronounce the s sound in words using their upper teeth teeth and lower lip (instead of the conventional mostly internal way). This makes it sound almost lispy.
I don't ...
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
60
views
How do you connect ending of word "Didn't" , with word "Do"?
I find it hard to pronounce these two words together quickly, so I thought I must be missing some sound or something that connects them.
Thanks in advance.
- 111
2
votes
1
answer
130
views
What happens to 'l' in between words as in "Neal Evans"?
What happens to 'l' in between words?
For example in "Neal Evans, is the extra /l/ sound extended to "Evans"? So that "Neal Evans" becomes /niːl levəns/ in British ...
1
vote
0
answers
23
views
What could possibly cause the stress shift in adverbs ending in -arily compared to adjectives ending in -ary?
While adjectives ending in -ary (British English /əri/, American English /eri/) never have stress on the second last syllable (the /e/ in AmE, and obviously the /ə/ in BrE), their derivative adverbs ...
- 4,835
2
votes
1
answer
207
views
What is the dialect feature in British English where "W" is pronounced as "Y"?
It is very rare but I've heard some people from Great Britain pronouncing it like that for some reason.
For instance:
He said "However" pronouncing it as "Hoyiever".
He said "...
2
votes
0
answers
76
views
Pronunciation of 'Taxman'
Like Postman /ˈpəʊstmən/, Policeman /pəˈliːsmən/ and Fireman /faɪəmən/, one would assume that Taxman would also be pronounced with a schwa in the man. But this is not the case and it is pronounced /...
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
50
views
The stress of the prefix 'inter-'
In some words, the stress is on the first syllable of inter, for stance, intercourse, interview, internet, interval.
However, there are also some words, in which the stress is on the second syllable ...
- 213
1
vote
0
answers
66
views
How was the è in past-tense verbs pronounced?
How would Shakespeare have pronounced damnèd for example?
How about the end of Nurse's Song by Blake:
The little ones leapèd, and shoutèd, and laugh'd
And all the hills echoèd
How would he have ...
- 2,619
0
votes
2
answers
139
views
How to pronounce -est endings
Could you please confirm for me whether my understanding is correct about the pronunciation of the ending -est in superlative, for example: shortest, farthest, biggest,...
-est is pronounced as /ɪst/ ...
- 151
2
votes
0
answers
69
views
Is there a rule that describes vowel pronunciation changes in conjugated words? [duplicate]
I've noticed that sometimes when a word (generally a noun or adjective) gains or loses syllables, the pronunciation of the vowels will change. For example,
horizon vs horizontal
sociopath vs ...
- 31
0
votes
1
answer
90
views
Schwa in Webster dictionary [closed]
Why there are too many sounds marked by schwa in Webster's dictionary and how to recognize the correct pronunciation? E.g.:
Cup /kʌp/ in Oxford and \ˈkəp\ in Webster
Notice /ˈnəʊtɪs/ in Oxford and \...
- 103
-1
votes
1
answer
81
views
Why is Woodlesford pronounced the way it is?
Why is Woodlesford pronounced as Woo-dles-ford but not Wood-les-ford? Is there an "L" sound? Wikipedia says, "Widlesford, Wryd(e)lesford(e) and *wrīdels + ford", which confuse me ...
- 91
1
vote
0
answers
43
views
Trouble pronouncing "queer" being myself a native British speaker [closed]
I'm a native British speaker from Bristol and for some reason I'm having real trouble pronouncing the word queer. Any ideas? I'm also fluent in German and for some reason I think I'm saying it with a ...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
43
views
"Be-all and end-all"?
There is the saying "Be-all and end-all", meaning a fundamental property of something.
I noticed it is hard to pronounce because "and" and "end" sound the same.
Is one &...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
Why do some words sound/feel more fake than others? Is there logic/psychology behind this phenomenon? [closed]
I was recently reading Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem and had the thought that some of the made-up words sounded more real than some real words.
And looking at a list of words that are real but are ...
0
votes
2
answers
129
views
Phonetic symbols for Port are different: Webster Internet vs Webster paper
Phonetic symbols are different for the same word Port.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary on the Internet:
port noun (1)
\ ˈpȯrt \
Definition of port (Entry 1 of 10)
1: a place where ships may ride ...
- 213
0
votes
0
answers
69
views
Phonetic symbol - superscript h in Which [duplicate]
Q1) What is the meaning of the small h (superscript h) in the phonetic symbols of which shown in Collins?
ʰwɪ̠tʃ
the small h means 'complete silence' (= just ignore h)
the small h means 'pronounce ...
- 213
0
votes
0
answers
17
views
pronunciation of plural words ending in "-ses" derived from non-Greek language [duplicate]
I hear TV journalists pronounce plurals like "biases" and "processes" with the long e sound. Can you comment on this conflation of pronunciation?
32
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Where did the third syllable of the letter W in WD-40 go?
Today, I was taking a look at how to pronounce the name WD-40.
A quick google search dropped me here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8SwN_qw3AA
My Spanish ear is very new to the English language, ...
- 479
2
votes
0
answers
63
views
When is the "t" pronounced in won’t, don’t, can’t?
I am a speaker of Canadian English. I have noticed that when people pronounce won’t, don’t, and can’t, often when speaking normally, they don’t release the “t”, as in connected speech. The standard ...
- 559
7
votes
3
answers
762
views
Pronunciation of ‘-eru-’
I’ve just come across the word ‘glomerular’ and I’m genuinely irked by how difficult it is to pronounce the eru bit. It seems online that the r is omitted, turning it into more of a yuh sound.
Does ...
- 73
2
votes
1
answer
106
views
Why have some younger & (in particular) highly-educated Americans recently begun to pronounce -t- as -d- in words where glottal -t- is idiomatic?
I'm not talking about "bidder" for "bitter" or "sidding" for "sitting," or "ladder" for "latter," etc. I'm talking about "Manhaddan,&...
- 21
1
vote
2
answers
100
views
How is "composite" as a verb pronounced in British English?
I always pronounce "composite" as COM-posite when it is used as an adjective or a noun. But in some technical contexts as "alpha compositing" it is also used as a verb, and in this ...
- 153
2
votes
1
answer
80
views
American English region where "here" is pronounced "cheer"
On the Andy Griffith Show the characters from Mayberry (modeled on Mount Airy NC) pronounce "here" as "cheer".
This can be heard at second 29 of Andy Griffith Football Story from ...
- 21
1
vote
0
answers
35
views
Is the at-sign in Instagram handles pronounced? [closed]
I realize that this question is likely factually unanswerable, but I am curious about opinions and argument for either option.
Say I want to write at the end of an article that I want my reader to ...
- 141
2
votes
1
answer
71
views
Is short /ɪ/ or long /i:/ being used for the pronunciation of "Mid" on Cambridge Online Dictionary
To my ears, the Cambridge dictionary pronounces the word "Mid" /mɪd/ really like /mi:d/ for British accent. So the long /i:/ is being used instead of the short /ɪ/. Compare:
https://...
- 177
5
votes
1
answer
559
views
Pronunciation: /ɪ/ becomes /ə/ in "William" or "Wilkinson"?
I sometimes hear words like "Willam" or "Wilkinson" pronounced like /'wəl-jəm/ or /'wəɫ̩-kən-sən/, rather than /'wɪɫ̩-jəm/ or /'wɪɫ̩-kən-sən/. In other words, the /wɪɫ̩/ cluster is ...
- 53
1
vote
1
answer
177
views
When did "vegetable" become "vetchtable"?
I was watching a video that referenced the "Major General Song" from The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, and I noticed that the writers clearly use vegetable as a 4-syllable word. The Wiki ...
- 113