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 #2 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 13:24 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| Conchita wrote: |
| Do you say [fo:lt], [folt] or the American way [fa:lt]? I pronounce it as [fo:lt], but have a sneaky suspicion that this is becoming old-fashioned -- at least, I seem to hear [folt] more and more these days. Is it only my impression? |
In standard American it is not [fa:lt]. That's for people in places like Minnesota or parts of California, where they strangely pronounce the word "dog" as [dag] and have no distinction between the words "cot" and "caught". The standard way to pronounce "fault" in the US is with the mid back lax rounded vowel that in linguistics school we referred to as "backwards C". So it's neither [o:], [o] nor [a:]. This program won't let me post the right IPA character, but it's the same vowel that's in the standard pronunciations of "dog" and "caught". |
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Jamie (K)
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| #3 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 13:29 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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By the way, I know quite many British people who pronounce 'natural' as 'nAtural', for example. Quite clear to my ears.
Not to mention that the vast majority of people I know around pronounce 'associated' as 'assoSiated' (which surprised me a lot).
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Tamara
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| #4 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 13:34 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| Tamara wrote: |
By the way, I know quite many British people who pronounce 'natural' as 'nAtural', for example. Quite clear to my ears.
Not to mention that the vast majority of people I know around pronounce 'associated' as 'assoSiated' (which surprised me a lot). |
I think it's weird when some British people pronounce "Asia" as [ejzija]. To us they sound like children who are just reading the letters one by one and haven't learned the word yet. |
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Jamie (K)
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| #5 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 13:57 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| In standard American it is not [fa:lt]. |
It's the 'a' in 'hard', not the one in 'hat', I was referring to. As you well know, we can't reproduce this phonetic symbol here (isn't it a pain?).
| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| I think it's weird when some British people pronounce "Asia" as [ejzija]. |
 I've never heard it pronounced like that (and I've heard it often enough)!
It's either 'eish9' or 'eizh9'. |
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Conchita
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| #6 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 14:03 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| Conchita wrote: |
| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| In standard American it is not [fa:lt]. |
It's the 'a' in 'hard', not the one in 'hat', I was referring to. As you well know, we can't reproduce this phonetic symbol here (isn't it a pain?). |
I know which one you're talking about. The standard American pronunciation of "fault" does not have the same vowel as the word "hard". It has a mid back lax rounded vowel. |
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Jamie (K)
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| #7 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 14:11 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| Another word that is sometimes given a phonetic transcription different to the one I normally hear and use is 'sexual' -- I've never heard anyone say 'seksju9l', as you can read in some dictionaries, but rather 'sekshu9l'. |
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Conchita
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| #8 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 15:06 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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the way I pronounce it now: "fahlt"
the way I used to pronounce it, when living way up north: "faaahlt"
hehe
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Prezbucky
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| #9 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 15:07 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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| prezbucky wrote: |
the way I pronounce it now: "fahlt"
the way I used to pronounce it, when living way up north: "faaahlt"
hehe |
And how do you pronounce 'hard'? |
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Conchita
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| #10 (permalink) Fri Jan 26, 2007 15:10 pm How do you pronounce 'fault'? |
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the northern vowels are very Scandinavian/German in pronunciation -- none of this rounded-vowel crap (California).
Latin vowels are also true to my Northern sensibilities (northern Midwest, that is):
the Spanish "e" is my "a", only i put a bit more of a diphthong on it.
their "u" is the vowel sound when I say "you"
their "o" -- straight and hard -- is identical to my "o".
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Prezbucky
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| parkplatz ... an English vocable? | What the two 'ones' stand for in 'It takes one to know one'? |
