tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post1763590076965266344..comments2024-03-17T09:14:13.950+00:00Comments on John Wells’s phonetic blog: obstruentJohn Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13684304410735867148noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-60969733704690255582009-04-29T02:07:00.000+01:002009-04-29T02:07:00.000+01:00Bah humbug on "alveolar". Never heard anything but...Bah humbug on "alveolar". Never heard anything but [ɛlviˈæələ] (if you'll allow me a parody of Melbourne accent) for all the years I was in Melbourne University linguistics—including tutoring phonetics. I hereby deem this a language change.<br /><br />(Parenteze al la gastiganto: dankon pro via vortaro, Malgraŭ ke mi jam delonge kabeis...)opoudjishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02106433476518749382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-24790096093438049042009-04-20T14:30:00.000+01:002009-04-20T14:30:00.000+01:00I also was an alve'olar and vɛlar speaker for most...I also was an <I>alve'olar</I> and <I>vɛlar</I> speaker for most of my life, and occasionally still slip. The first is just a bit more evidence for my claim that English is by default a penultimate-stress language; in the absence of other clues to stress, we assume penultimate stress. All I can say is, linguists writing introductory works ought, after explaining the IPA, to give pronunciations of all their technical terms, and not leave the matter to general dictionaries or oral tradition.<br /><br />I also say <I>con'gruent</I>, having learned that pronunciation in high-school geometry class (where there was much talk of congruent triangles), but <I>in'congruous</I>.<br /><br /><I>Ab'lative</I> is, I believe, standard for the deverbal adjective from <I>ab'late</I>, as in the <I>ablative shield</I> that used to protect space capsules from burning up in the atmosphere by itself burning away.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-86906122677691129542009-04-12T00:27:00.000+01:002009-04-12T00:27:00.000+01:00I don't know whether to thank you, Amy, or to cure...I don't know whether to thank you, Amy, or to cure vehemently.<BR/><BR/>I've never before <I>heard</I> the word until I checked it online now. Who <I>designed</I> this language?!! I want to register a complaint.<BR/><BR/>Of course, I used to pronounce (or at least think) "vehement" as /'vɛhəmɛnt/.Jens Knudsen (Sili)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14078875730565068352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-12130700851420496362009-04-09T23:05:00.000+01:002009-04-09T23:05:00.000+01:00For the longest time I used to pronounce "velar" a...For the longest time I used to pronounce "velar" as ["vEl@`], until I finally found out it was ["vi:l@`]. Likewise I used to pronounce "ablative" as [@"bleI4Iv], rather than ["{bl@4Iv].Lazar Taxonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13221219358689771815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-13127121244114775922009-04-09T13:51:00.000+01:002009-04-09T13:51:00.000+01:00@ Lance: The "to misle" pronunciation of "misled" ...@ Lance: The "to misle" pronunciation of "misled" is featured in How Green Was My Valley. So you're in good company.<BR/><BR/>@ John: In the US I sometimes hear "influence" with stress on the second syllable. Also, on home improvement shows (my not-so-secret vice), I have heard "damask" with ultimate stress, "tester" (as in tester bed) with [i:] in the first syllable, and "foliage" as "folage" (presumably following the "silent i" pattern of "marriage, carriage" and so forth (I think this last has come up before).<BR/><BR/>I mispronounced "alveolar" as "al-vee-OH-ler" until a few years ago, when I heard it pronounced properly, and then looked it up to confirm that I'd been mistaken.Amy Stollerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14067839246823753590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-80044568247360866602009-04-09T12:41:00.000+01:002009-04-09T12:41:00.000+01:00The colleague in question probably began pronounci...The colleague in question probably began pronouncing obstruent this way when he was in his teens, and before he ever heard anyone say it. And the habit stuck.<BR/><BR/>I remember that for a long time I imagined that "misled", which I had never heard anyone pronounce, was the past tense of a verb "to misle".Lance Eccleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04712002642501309020noreply@blogger.com