29
spicket
Definition of spicket
chiefly South & Midland [Middle USA] : spigot
(Merriam Webster)
Do you use "spigot" or "spicket" to refer to a faucet or tap that water comes out of?
a. spicket (6.38%)
b. spigot (66.89%)
c. I use both interchangeably (2.52%)
d. I say "spicket" but spell it "spigot" (12.64%)
(Vaux, Bert and ...
8
I'm not not sure if it's an American/British thing
It is an American/British thing, although there also could be variation between individuals of either accent.
In general, British English speakers are more likely than American English speakers to elide a syllable in words ending in -ory (like repository) or -ary (like dictionary). When British English ...
5
The word written ‹REPOSITORY› is most often (but not always) pronounced as one of:
[ɹᵻˈpʰɒsᵻtɹi]
[ɹɪˈpʰɑzᵻtʃɹi]
[ɹəˈpʰɑzətʃɹi]
[rᵻˈpʰɒsᵻtəri]
[rᵻˈpʰɒsᵻtəri]
[ɹᵻˈpʰɒsᵻˌtʰɔɹi]
[ɹᵻˈpʰɑzᵻˌtʰɔɹi]
[ɹəˈpʰɑzəˌtʰɔɹi]
[ɹiˈpʰɔzəˌtʰoɹi]
(other possibilities)
Notice that some of those (1–5) have one stress, but others (6–9) have two.
In virtually
every position in ...
5
In a comment, John Lawler wrote:
Just as /d/ and /t/ neutralize after a stressed vowel before an unstressed one (writer/rider, catty/caddy), so do /ɡ/ and /k/, and for the same reason -- vowels are voiced and tend to voice consonants between them, especially short consonants like voiceless stops. This means that it's very hard to hear the difference in ...
4
Though the generic Irish-English accent is rhotic (pronounces all 'r's), Supposedly, the accent in Dublin, where Joyce was born and raised, is (or was at that time?) non-rhotic. In that case, 'hoe' /hoʊ̯/ or /ho:/ and 'whore' /hoːɹ/ or /ho:/, are pretty close.
Joyce, being well-educated, might have been explicitly writing for a more general British audience ...
4
As mentioned in the comments, this previous question has overlap with yours: Why do dictionaries transcribe the nasal in 'think' and 'language' with /ŋ/, yet 'input' and 'inbox' with /n/, not /m/? I don't want to copy my answer there, so please go to the linked page to read it.
To address your numbered questions:
According ...
3
"reposi-tree" is British; "reposi-to-ree" is American.
One big clue is the origin of the dictionary you're using. Merriam-Webster is an American reference dictionary ("About Us," Merriam-Webster), so its pronunciations tend to be American. Macmillan has an American and a British listing, and each has a distinct pronunciation:
(American) /rɪˈpɑzəˌtɔri/
...
2
https://pittsburghspeech.pitt.edu/PittsburghSpeech_PgheseOverview.html
Spicket is very common in the "Pittsburghese" dialect spoken in western pennsylvania, but it is clearly a corruption of "spigot".
2
As an American native English speaker, the adjacent "sh" and "s" are both pronounced and would be heard by those who grew up with English. Yes, the sounds are related, but that does not imply the sounds should be merged or one of them skipped. In fact, if one tried to merge them, the person might sound like they are slurring their words, possibly ...
2
Vowels before /r/ are often are altered in English. Because of this, pedagogical resources have a special term for these kind of vowels: "r-controlled" vowels.
There is a tradition for some accents of transcribing certain r-controlled vowels as diphthongs that end in a non-syllabic schwa sound. That is what /ʊə/ represents in the transcription /jʊərɵˈbɒrəs/....
1
I think there are a few issues here that should be separated for the purposes of clarity.
Shakespeare's English
First — whether what we think of as the "Queen's English" is identical (or nearly so) to Shakespeare's English. There is a general consensus that it is not. People disagree about the details, but David Crystal is an example of a linguist that has ...
1
The Null Hypothesis: Nowhere!
Certainly non-rhoticity, both of Joyce's Dublin English and the English of his typically readers, allowed Joyce, the pun-master, especially in Finnegans Wake, to pun haw-hoor-hoer with "whore". In fact, he punned "haw" and "whore" in the "Circes", the "whore" chapter of Ulysses. Even "hear"-"whore".
On the other hand, the ...
1
Although -ist usually doesn’t change stress, there are other words with this kind of stress difference. For example, Narcissus and narcissist. This doesn’t explain it, but it does suggest that there may actually be a weak preference to stress the antepenult of words of more than two syllables that end in -ist.
1
Some English dialects have T-glottalization, in some cases voiceless p is glottalized and also some linguists talk about k-glottalization (but it's uncommon).
To my knowledge nobody claims that voiced "d" sound is ever glottalized in English. Strictly speaking you've asked about letter, not sound - in that case, well, you need to things: 1) this particular ...
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