3 ms·

The narrator mispronounces foliage every single time. It has three syllables, not two.

by cainxinth 4y ago

udp 4y ago
They do the same with “quality” too so I guess it’s just their accent.
tom_ 4y ago
English has a wide range of accents, and correct pronounciation of even common words can vary widely.
crazygringo 4y ago
That two-syllable pronunciation initially struck me as wrong too, but it turns out: > The disyllabic pronunciation \ˈfō-lij\ is very common. Some commentators insist that foliage requires a trisyllabic pronunciation because of its spelling, but words of a similar pattern such as carriage and marriage do not fall under their prescription. [1] The speaker otherwise has a fairly General American accent, so I'm curious if the two-syllable version is a geographic thing? Unfortunately, it was never included in the Harvard Dialect Survey [2]. [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foliage https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foliage [2] http://dialect.redlog.net/ http://dialect.redlog.net/
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  >> The disyllabic pronunciation \ˈfō-lij\ is very common. MW does also note that that pronunciation is nonstandard. I checked the first 20 samples on youglish ( https://youglish.com/pronounce/foliage/english/us https://youglish.com/pronounce/foliage/english/us? ). 16 used an unambiguous three-syllable pronunciation, 3 unambiguously omitted the middle syllable (#9, #16, #22†), and one (#12) was ambiguous. Of the disyllabic pronunciations, only #9 had a marked regional accent. † Why is #22 one of the first 20 samples? Two of the earlier samples are different timestamps into the same video, which I only counted once, and one is missing, which I counted zero times.
ricardo81 4y ago
Yes, I was thinking ESL, no big deal either way. Noticed with the pronunciation of cupboard as two separate words.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  ESL is not a likely explanation for someone using a pronunciation of "foliage" that is counterindicated by the spelling. (It is a much more likely explanation for pronouncing cupboard according to the spelling.)
  - ricardo81 4y ago
    I think more along the lines of what people hear everyday. If you're in an English speaking country day in day out, you will hear it phonetically. If not, much more possibility of interpreting a written word differently.
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      > If you're in an English speaking country day in day out, you will hear it phonetically. Yes, that's how you get pronunciations that differ from the spelling. If a word is rare enough, its pronunciation will be regularized to match its spelling. And for a foreign speaker, almost all words are that rare.

The narrator mispronounces foliage every single time. It has three syllables, not two.

udp 4y ago

They do the same with “quality” too so I guess it’s just their accent.

tom_ 4y ago

English has a wide range of accents, and correct pronounciation of even common words can vary widely.

crazygringo 4y ago

That two-syllable pronunciation initially struck me as wrong too, but it turns out: > The disyllabic pronunciation \ˈfō-lij\ is very common. Some commentators insist that foliage requires a trisyllabic pronunciation because of its spelling, but words of a similar pattern such as carriage and marriage do not fall under their prescription. [1] The speaker otherwise has a fairly General American accent, so I'm curious if the two-syllable version is a geographic thing? Unfortunately, it was never included in the Harvard Dialect Survey [2]. [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foliage https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foliage [2] http://dialect.redlog.net/ http://dialect.redlog.net/

thaumasiotes 4y ago
>> The disyllabic pronunciation \ˈfō-lij\ is very common. MW does also note that that pronunciation is nonstandard. I checked the first 20 samples on youglish ( https://youglish.com/pronounce/foliage/english/us https://youglish.com/pronounce/foliage/english/us? ). 16 used an unambiguous three-syllable pronunciation, 3 unambiguously omitted the middle syllable (#9, #16, #22†), and one (#12) was ambiguous. Of the disyllabic pronunciations, only #9 had a marked regional accent. † Why is #22 one of the first 20 samples? Two of the earlier samples are different timestamps into the same video, which I only counted once, and one is missing, which I counted zero times.

ricardo81 4y ago

Yes, I was thinking ESL, no big deal either way. Noticed with the pronunciation of cupboard as two separate words.

thaumasiotes 4y ago
ESL is not a likely explanation for someone using a pronunciation of "foliage" that is counterindicated by the spelling. (It is a much more likely explanation for pronouncing cupboard according to the spelling.)
- ricardo81 4y ago
  I think more along the lines of what people hear everyday. If you're in an English speaking country day in day out, you will hear it phonetically. If not, much more possibility of interpreting a written word differently.
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > If you're in an English speaking country day in day out, you will hear it phonetically. Yes, that's how you get pronunciations that differ from the spelling. If a word is rare enough, its pronunciation will be regularized to match its spelling. And for a foreign speaker, almost all words are that rare.