Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)

[Eebster the Great]

gone = cot and lawn = caught?

[Liri]

For people who differentiate "Mary" and "marry," how do you do it?

I can't tell if I do or not. I think my mouth opens the most for Mary, less for marry, and least for merry, but I could just be fucking with myself and I don't know if I'd do that in conversation.

[Angua]

Mairy (rhyme with hairy, fairy) (Mary) Long a

Ma (as in mama) ry. Marry. Short a

[flicky1991]

I agree "marry" has a short "a" but that's a different sound from "mama" to me. "Marry" has the same vowels as "Nancy". "Mary"'s first syllable is homophonous with "mare" and "mayor".

*waits for someone to dispute her pronunciation of "mayor"*

[Pfhorrest]

Didn't we just do "mayor" a little bit upthread?

(It's two syllables, for the record. Literally just "may" + "or").

[flicky1991]

Didn't we just do "mayor" a little bit upthread?

It's not been mentioned on this thread before my post, according to the search. Different thread, maybe?

[ThirdParty]

Literally just "may" + "or"

No, it isn't. It rhymes with "player".

[Pfhorrest]

"Or" sometimes rhymes with "er" (basically, when deemphasized and the 'o' becomes a schwa). E.g. "may or may not" is homophonous with "mayor may not", which in turn rhymes with "play or play not" and "player play not".

[gmalivuk]

Mairy (rhyme with hairy, fairy) (Mary) Long a

Ma (as in mama) ry. Marry. Short a

Typically I see "short a" to describe sound in mat/bad/pack, which is not the sound I'd think of for "Mama", but is for "marry".

[Aiwendil]

gone = cot and lawn = caught?

Yep.

[Mega85]

How do you pronounce "gonna"? I pronounce it like "gunna".

[flicky1991]

Pretty sure I have schwas on both syllables.

[Mega85]

How do you pronounce "crappie" the fish? Traditionally it is /krApi/ but a spelling pronunciation /kr{pi/ is now common.

[Derek]

I've never heard of it. I would pronounce it based on the spelling with an /æ/.

[Eebster the Great]

We've talked a lot about "caught," but what about "catch"? Do you pronounce it /kæt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "match") or /kɛt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "fetch")? For instance, the poem Jabberwocky rhymes "claws that catch" with "Bandersnatch," which wouldn't happen in my dialect.

Separately, how do you pronounce the word spelled "catsup"? I would say it identically to "ketchup," but I've also heard a more phonetic pronunciation.

[freezeblade]

We've talked a lot about "caught," but what about "catch"? Do you pronounce it /kæt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "match") or /kɛt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "fetch")? For instance, the poem Jabberwocky rhymes "claws that catch" with "Bandersnatch," which wouldn't happen in my dialect.

Separately, how do you pronounce the word spelled "catsup"? I would say it identically to "ketchup," but I've also heard a more phonetic pronunciation.

That line rhymes in my Dialect (coastal central California), and I pronounce ketchup very close to "catch-up"

[gmalivuk]

In natural speech "catch" and "fetch" rhyme, but if I say it more carefully it has the latch/match/batch vowel.

[Liri]

Catch = match/batch/latch.

People where I live don't use the word catsup, but I would pronounce it phonetically.

[flicky1991]

I agree with Liri on both points.

[Thesh]

That line rhymes in my Dialect (coastal central California), and I pronounce ketchup very close to "catch-up"

I was raised in Southern California, and pronounce "catch" like "match," but "ketchup" rhymes with "fetch" for me.

[Pfhorrest]

If asked out of the blue, I'd say that "catch" has the "match/latch/etc" vowel and wonder what the heck else it could be, but then there's a joke where the punchline is a "catch up"/"ketchup" pun and I've never thought twice about it, and now that I think about it I might sometimes pronounce "ketchup" as "catch up" (when the obvious pronunciation if asked out of the blue rhymes with "fetch up"), so I guess those two vowels are pretty negotiable to me (though I'd never pronounced "fetch" as "fatch", so maybe not so much).

"Catsup" I usually just pronounce "ketchup" because it's the same word, but if I feel like being technically correct I'll try to turn the "tch" in "ketchup" into a "ts" instead when it's spelled that way. Or if I feel like being funny, "cat soup".

[freezeblade]

That line rhymes in my Dialect (coastal central California), and I pronounce ketchup very close to "catch-up"

I was raised in Southern California, and pronounce "catch" like "match," but "ketchup" rhymes with "fetch" for me.

This could be carried over from my father, who also does the "warsh" pronunciation of "wash."

I can pronounce "ketchup" both ways, rhyming with "fetch" or "catch," with each one sounding "right." However I think "catch" is more common for me in my spoken English.

[pogrmman]

“Catch”/“fetch” have the same vowel for me, with “match” being distinct. Ketchup is pronounced like “catch-up”. With respect to “crappie”, I use the pronunciation with the same vowel as “crop” (I’m not sure of the transcription). That’s also how everybody I’ve ever talked to about it says it.

Then again, my accent is this sort of weird mishmash that varies pretty substantially in an unconscious manner based off of situation (for instance, I sometimes have the pin/pen merger, but other times don’t — and it varies without me consciously thinking about it). Interestingly, I’ve noticed that when I’m at home (Austin), I tend to speak fairly neutrally, but the longer I’m away at college, the more the Texan part of my accent comes out — I start saying y’all more, I move more towards the pin/pen merger, my vowels tend to exhibit some of the Southern Vowel Shift, I use sir/maam a lot more, etc... It’s completely unconscious, but it’s hilarious to me. None of my friends back home speak much like that — it’s like I start to sound like a lot of my elementary school teachers and other older people I interacted with.

[ThirdParty]

what about "catch"? Do you pronounce it /kæt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "match") or /kɛt͡ʃ/ (rhyming with "fetch")? For instance, the poem Jabberwocky rhymes "claws that catch" with "Bandersnatch," which wouldn't happen in my dialect.

Huh, interesting question. Both pronunciations seem right to me. I think maybe I tend to use /kɛt͡ʃ/ for intercepting a flying object, but /kæt͡ʃ/ for trapping an animal? Not sure.

(The sounds definitely aren't interchangeable, though. "lech" and "latch" form a minimal pair.)

[Derek]

I pronounce both "catch" and "ketchup" with /æ/, and anyone who spells it "catsup" will be burned as a heretic.

People where I live don't use the word catsup, but I would pronounce it phonetically.

What do people call it then?

[Liri]

I pronounce both "catch" and "ketchup" with /æ/, and anyone who spells it "catsup" will be burned as a heretic.

People where I live don't use the word catsup, but I would pronounce it phonetically.

What do people call it then?

Ketchup.

[Eebster the Great]

How about "tomato sauce"? That's a synonym for ketchup in some places, right?

[flicky1991]

I called it that as a child, but now I generally use that to mean the kind of sauces that go on pasta. I'm not sure where I picked it up from - maybe my parents called it that in the past.

[Derek]

Ketchup.

That's just the different spelling of the same word.

[gmalivuk]

↶

Ketchup.

That's just the different spelling of the same word.

Seems maybe you missed the question being replied to?

↶
Separately, how do you pronounce the word spelled "catsup"? I would say it identically to "ketchup," but I've also heard a more phonetic pronunciation.

[Mega85]

How do you pronounce the pizza place Sbarro? I typically hear either /səbɑɹoʊ/ or /spɑɹoʊ/ or maybe even /zbɑɹoʊ/.

[Eebster the Great]

I try to say /sbɑ:ɹoʊ/, but it usually comes out like one of those.

[Mega85]

A pharmaceutical company apparently is guilty of having created a sixth pronunciation for the letter "x".

"aylexithymea" for "alexithymia"
This unusual scientific word is unclear as to pronunciation, but need not be.
The first problem is that the A before a single consonant at the start of the word will be seen by many readers as representing a schwa, as in "around", "about", and "apostrophe". That's not the sound here, however, which is a long-A. We could write that as AI, as in "staid", or AY, as in "plaything". Before an L, as here, however, AI would be seen as having the flat-A sound in "fail", "rail", and "airmail", so AY is the better choice.
The X is probably not a problem, even tho X can represent five different sounds (KS as in "nexus", GZ as in "exist", KSH as in "luxury", GZH as in "luxurious", and Z as in "xylem").* The default that most people will see for an X in a location like this is KS, which is correct, so we can leave it as-is.
TH could also be pronounced in more than one way, voiced, as in "this", and unvoiced (or voiceless), as in "thing". A rare reader might see the word "thy" within today's word, and think the proper sound is voiced. But again, the default that most people will see, voiceless, is correct, so we don't need even to try to clarify that sound, which is good, given that there is no way to do that in traditional spelling!
The last issue is the IA at the end of this long word. IA can be pronounced in more than one way too, within a word as long-I plus long-A ("hiatus"), or long-I plus short-A ("diameter"), or long-I plus schwa ("defiance"). At the end of a word, IA can be pronounced as long-E plus schwa ("nutria"), or the consonant Y plus schwa ("California") and even as long-I plus schwa (as in the old-fashioned pronunciation of the female name "Maria" and the term "Black Maria" for a paddy wagon. That spelling for that sound at the end of a word has been changed to IAH (except in "Black Maria"), as in the given name Mariah and the ordinary noun "pariah". (Now, do you see the need for spelling reform?)
Here, the sound is long-E plus schwa, which is more clearly written EA.
Putting this all together, we get: "aylexithymea".
____________________
* Dictionary.com: "Psychiatry. difficulty in experiencing, expressing, and describing emotional responses."
* A pharmaceutical company has recently created a SIXTH pronunciation for X, in the marketing name of a new drug, "Farxiga", which is supposed to be pronounced with an S-sound! That is atrocious, but English does not have any authoritative body to ban such disgraceful misspellings.

[chridd]

A pharmaceutical company apparently is guilty of having created a sixth pronunciation for the letter "x".

[...]X can represent five different sounds (KS as in "nexus", GZ as in "exist", KSH as in "luxury", GZH as in "luxurious", and Z as in "xylem").*[...]* A pharmaceutical company has recently created a SIXTH pronunciation for X, in the marketing name of a new drug, "Farxiga", which is supposed to be pronounced with an S-sound! That is atrocious, but English does not have any authoritative body to ban such disgraceful misspellings.

Don't forget LaTeX (with the X pronounced /k/).

[eSOANEM]

xylophone is /z/

[Eebster the Great]

So is "xylem," which was in the list.

[ThirdParty]

I'm not sure I even know what a "xylem" is. I wonder why they didn't pick a less obscure word for their list, such as "xylophone" or "tableaux".

Also, I pronounce "luxurious" with /gzh/ and not /ksh/. "Crucifixion" would have been a more unambiguous example of "x" as /ksh/.

[pogrmman]

I'm not sure I even know what a "xylem" is. I wonder why they didn't pick a less obscure word for their list, such as "xylophone" or "tableaux".

Also, I pronounce "luxurious" with /gzh/ and not /ksh/. "Crucifixion" would have been a more unambiguous example of "x" as /ksh/.

Xylem and xylophone have the same x sound, but not tableaux (the x is silent, because French).

I also pronounce luxurious with /gzh/ -- their choice of words is weird.

[flicky1991]

Also, I pronounce "luxurious" with /gzh/ and not /ksh/. "Crucifixion" would have been a more unambiguous example of "x" as /ksh/.

I also pronounce luxurious with /gzh/ -- their choice of words is weird.

You misread. They had "luxurious" the same as your pronunciations.

[Liri]

I'm not sure I even know what a "xylem" is. I wonder why they didn't pick a less obscure word for their list, such as "xylophone" or "tableaux"

Xylem is one of the types of transport tissues in vascular plants, taking water and nutrients up from the roots.

I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that the 'x' in 'tableaux' is silent. Not... "tabloze".