All Questions
6 questions
2
votes
2
answers
94
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Why does "pontoon" sound so uncommon or foreign? [closed]
Yes, I know "cartoon" sounds like normal English.
But why does "pontoon", which rhymes with it, sound somewhat odd?: Somehow the accent on which syllable combined with choice of ...
- 167
0
votes
1
answer
351
views
Why does the diphthong /aʊ/ not occur before /k/, /m/, /p/, /b/, /g/ etc?
I have noticed that the diphthong /aʊ/ occurs before certain consonants. We have:
/aʊd/ in loud
/aʊt/ in out
/aʊs/ in house
/aʊn/ in town
/aʊtʃ/ in pouch
/aʊl/ in owl
BUT, we don't have /aʊp/, /aʊb/,...
user387044
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Pronunciation: vowels before dark L (Any accent)
To native speakers of English, how do you compare a vowel before a dark L and one without a dark L. Example words:
gold, goal, sold, soul, hole, hold, bowl, bold
go, so, ho, bow(noun)
.
pool, ...
- 165
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Yod coalescence across words - only with "you(r(s))"?
I'm asking specifically about Yod* coalescence when connecting two words together.
Some very (neat) phenomenon in American English is to "fuse" you/r/s when the word ends in t/d/z:
I was thinking ...
- 906
3
votes
0
answers
320
views
Why is w considered a consonant? [duplicate]
I've always been taught that the character "w" in English was a consonant, except in very specific cases. However, on a recent trip to Wales, I learned that in Welsh it was considered a vowel. And ...
- 31
3
votes
3
answers
1k
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French speaker here — How to pronounce "r" and "l"?
I'm a French speaker and actually I have some problems with the sounds l , r and o in lawyer. Do you have any advice for me on how to place the tongue and so on?
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