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Tag Archives: phonetics
Marry, Merry, Mary
[Ed. Note: In an earlier version of this article, I suggested I pronounce ‘marry,’ ‘merry’ and ‘Mary’ differently. The opposite is true. I pronounce them alike.] Do you pronounce ‘marry,’ ‘merry,’ and ‘Mary’ the same? I do, which makes me a … Continue reading
How Non-Rhotic Accents Become Rhotic
While we’re on the topic of rhotic and non-rhotic accents, I’ll address a frequently asked question: why do non-rhotic accents switch so quickly to rhotic? And vice versa? Since World War Two, both the US and Britain have experienced massive … Continue reading
Yod-Dropping in American Accents
Of the many words that distinguish American accents from British, ‘tune‘ serves as a particularly good test. Many British accents insert a small ‘y’ sound before the vowel–resulting in something like ‘tyoon‘–whereas for most Americans, this word is homophonous with … Continue reading
But, buts, bus: The Scouse ‘T’
Scouse, the native accent of Liverpool, has comparatively unique features when compared to the surrounding area. Where Manchester and Leeds can arguably sound like variations of the same accent, Scouse seems to be in a world all its own. One … Continue reading
When ‘Price’ and ‘Prize’ Don’t Rhyme
In recent years, I’ve noticed a growing phenomenon among American English speakers. People with otherwise “standard” accents exhibit a “non-standard” pronunciation of words like price, right, and kite. To use right as an example, this results in pronunciations which sound … Continue reading
Children’s Accents
Children’s accents tell us quite a bit about adult accents. From the speech of children, we can deduce which sounds of English are easily acquired and which less so. And in some situations, we can find explanations for why accents … Continue reading
The Cloth Set
I remember the first time I learned about the cloth set. It was a boiling summer day in an un-air-conditioned New York workplace. Feeling the heat, I exclaimed to a co-worker, “Man, this is a hot office!” At that moment, … Continue reading
The 3 Types of Australian Accents
The Australian Accent is renowned for its lack of regional differences. This is perhaps not surprising given that Britain settled the country fairly late in the history of the Empire (New South Wales was discovered over a decade after America’s … Continue reading
Question About the Speech Accent Archive
A recent piece at WAMU profiles the Speech Accent Archive, an online database of accent samples compiled by the George Washington University‘s Linguistics Department. A vast collection of recordings of English speakers around the globe, this eleven-year-old resource is one … Continue reading
The Elusive English Schwa
An old trick question: what is the most common vowel in spoken English? Is it the a in cat? The o in top? The ee in keep? In fact, the answer is the puzzling little sound known as schwa. Schwa … Continue reading