xkcd

Mega85

Do nonrhotic speakers typically distinguish "formerly" and "formally"? I think they can be distinguished as "for muh lee" "formerly" vs. "for ml ee" at least for some nonrhotic speakers.

Mega85

How do you pronounce "kindergarten"? I pronounce it to rhyme with "garden", not with "carton".

Mega85

Anyone pronounce "while" like "wall"? When I say "while we're at it" it sounds like "wall we're at it", however in "for a while" I don't have the "wall" pronunciation.

Mega85

A discussion on Reddit brought up how Americans pronounce /ɛɡ/, as in "egg". A number of Americans pronounce this as /eɪɡ/, such that "egg" and "plague" rhyme. I've heard this pronunciations not infrequently, but I can't find anything about it on Wikipedia. Does anyone...

Mega85

Do vegans object to calling their spouse "honey"?

Mega85

How do you pronounce "trypophobia"? As "trip o phobia" or "tripe o phobia"?

How do you pronounce "violence" and "violent"? With two syllables or three syllables?

Mega85

The word "colonel" was spelled "coronel" once, which, while not a exactly a phonetic spelling, was better than the present "colonel". https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colonel English colonel is pronounced the same as kernel. This seems odd, but there is an exp...

Mega85

Yod-coalescence occurs in "sure" and "sugar". Those words got yod-coalescence early and so all varieties of English have it in those words.

Mega85

Most of the words above don't really vary and always have the /tʃ/ (ch) or /dʒ/ (dj) sound. "Mature" has a lot of variation in its pronunciation, and people who pronounce it without the ʃ also usually use a different vowel. (I never liked that pronunciation though personally, and it's les...

Mega85

I'm American. I also have "ch" in the word "mature", but I've heard some people use a "t" sound there.

Mega85

How do you pronounce "costume"? I pronounce it "cos choom". I've heard "cos toom".

Mega85

If you put together the -erry's and the -ery's pronounced the same, you get a MASS of words with ER as the crucial spelling, but if you try to use -ury rather than -urry, you get a completely different sound. So I think we'll go with -erry. But I appreciate your views. Cheers. Bury? Injury? Luxury?...

Mega85

Here's something I've found that the spelling reformer said: ''THIS is the famous "distinction without a difference", except that there are about 4 times as many -erry's as -urry's. And please note that Dictionary gives woor.ee, foor.ee, and hoor.ee (that's the sound that the U with a 'hat...

Mega85

What about "Pillsbury"? I pronounce that as "pills berry".

Mega85

A spelling reformer proposed that "worry" be respelled "werry". Tuesday, August 2, 2005: "werry" for "worry" A poll of Americans and Japanese about concern that World War III might occur in their lifetime prompted me to address today's word. -ORR- is very ambi...

Mega85

I knew this kid in high school who was from California, however spoke nonrhotically due to a speech impediment. People always asked him where he was from.

Mega85

Why do people claim that people from New Jersey say the state as "New Joisey" when no one from New Jersey talks like that? Just when have they ever heard someone from New Jersey call the state "New Joisey"?

Mega85

Dr. Seuss. His name is typically pronounced as /su:s/ by most people, but he actually pronounced the name as /sɔɪs/. I remember reading about that. Apparently it was the same way during his life, and he eventually accepted the fact that pretty much all Americans were going to pronounce his name tha...

Mega85

Dr. Seuss. His name is typically pronounced as /su:s/ by most people, but he actually pronounced the name as /sɔɪs/.

Mega85

Parents tell their children that Santa Claus isn't real while on camera. Are they some of the cruelest parents? The article says so.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... tears.html

Mega85

The usage of "ain't" for "did not" as in "I ain't get there on time" meaning "I didn't get there on time" does seem to be mainly an AAVE thing. Maybe some other dialects use "ain't" this way too, but most dialects that have "ain't" don't us...

Mega85

I (US) definitely have /dʒ/; I'm not sure if I've heard it with just /dj/. I might have a bit of a /j/ there after the /dʒ/ (so /ˈskɛdʒjl̩/), but if so it's really subtle and might just be because of the /ʒ/. I normally have two syllables, but /ˈskedʒ.ju.l̩/ doesn't sound wrong to me (I pronounce t...

Mega85

It does sound like they misconstrued the "Black English" assignment as applying to the entire word rather than just to that particular sense. If M-W had indeed assigned it that way, it would clearly have been a huge and uncharacteristic blunder, but it sounds like they didn't. That said, ...

Mega85

The petition Most of us have been taught at a young age not to use “ain’t” because it is not proper English. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a reference trusted by millions of people, defines “ain’t” as am not, are not, and is not. Sounds simple enough, but investigate further and you will see that its ...

Mega85

Yeah, it seems like there was a misconception among the people doing the petition that it was referring to all the uses of the word "ain't", not just the third sense. Dictionary.com includes "do not, does not, did not" in its entry for "ain't", but it says "in some...

Mega85

There was a petition to remove the reference of "Black English" from Merriam-Webster's definition of "ain't" because it was viewed as offensive and discriminatory. https://www.change.org/p/promoting-education-or-discrimination-vote-today-to-make-a-change?source_location=topic_pag...

Mega85

How many syllables do you have in "schedule"? For me, the word is three syllables [skɛdʒəwl̩] "skej uh wul".

Mega85

Merriam-Webster lists "often" with a "t" sound and puts a "÷" before that pronunciation. That is used in that dictionary for pronunciations that are commonly prescribed against. Oh, I was wondering what that symbol was. From Merriam-websters pronunciation guide \÷\ The...

Mega85

Merriam-Webster lists "often" with a "t" sound and puts a "÷" before that pronunciation. That is used in that dictionary for pronunciations that are commonly prescribed against.

Mega85

The pronunciation Q pon comes from yod-insertion (the opposite of yod-dropping) in the word "coupon".

Mega85

Coo coo.

Mega85

Do you refer to a coupon as a "coo pon" or a "Q pon"?

Mega85

Do you dislike it when people write "yeah" as "yea"? I know someone who always writes "yea" in texts when they mean "yeah". "yea" is a different word with the same meaning, but a different pronunciation.

Mega85

They split like this for me: "tomorrow" "morrow" "sorrow" "borrow" "sorry" And: "foreign" "origin" "majority" "minority" "forest" "horrible" "orange" "warranty" "Fl...

Mega85

"tomorrow" "morrow" "sorrow" "borrow" "sorry" "foreign" "origin" "majority" "minority" "forest" "horrible" "orange" "warranty" "Florida" "horror" How ...

Mega85

Funny that you should mention "solder", because I was think about that recently (need to fix some speaker cables, but I've never soldered before), and consequently thinking about it's pronunciation. I've usually said it /soʊldər/, based I'm sure on the spelling, but the "correct"...

Mega85

In a variety of English with a three way merger of the "father", "cot" and "caught" vowels, "law" would work. The song didn't originate in such a variety of English, if it did, they likely would have used something like "law, a legislative bill".

Mega85

"la, a note to follow so".

Surely better can be done than this. "La, "the" in French" maybe? Also they got the name of one of the notes wrong. It's sol, not so.

Mega85

Do you pronounce "than" the same as "then"? I pronounce "than" like "then" in ordinary speech. When I say "Less Than Jake" it sounds like "Less Then Jake".

Mega85

Pronouncing "orangutan" with an "ng" on the end changes how the "a" sounds from how it would sound if I pronounce it with /n/.

"orangutan" = [əɹeɪŋəteɪŋ] whereas if I pronounced it with /n/ at the end it would be [əɹeɪŋətɛən].

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