4 ms·

Multinyms, so words with multiple pronounciations/names? Anyway, I'm not a native speaker, but e.g. air, are, e'er, ere, err, heir does not sound identical to

by tgv 2y ago

Multinyms, so words with multiple pronounciations/names? Anyway, I'm not a native speaker, but e.g. air, are, e'er, ere, err, heir does not sound identical to me. The Oxford English Dictionary says: ɛː, ɑː/ə, ɛː, ɛː, əː, ɛː, which makes are and err different. Unfortunately, the author doesn't give a source, so it's probably just his dialect?

randallsquared 2y ago
The "are" listed is "a metric unit of measure, equal to 100 square meters", not a conjugation of "be". Google pronounces it like "air".
- timerol 2y ago
  It's 1/100th of a hectare, and pronounced like the "are" in "hectare".
ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
I'm a native English speaker (UK) and I'd pronounce some of those words differently. Certainly "air" and "are" sound very different. "e'er" would sound slightly different as it's spoken almost like two syllables, though not quite. I'd also take issue with "sick" and "Sikh" as Sikh has a slightly different vowel sound - somewhat longer than the short "i" in sic/sick. I'd say that "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms. Further down the list, I've just spotted "taught, taut, tot" and "tot" doesn't belong there.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- bdsa 2y ago
  I also would have said "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms until recently when I found out that Sikhs' preferred pronunciation is generally to sound closer to "sick" (aspirate the H if you like)
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    To be fair I don't know any Sikhs, though there is a Sikh community where I live (there's a Sikh temple at the bottom of my road). I'm going to listen out for how Sikhs pronounce it.
    - genewitch 2y ago
      And yet you wanted to correct someone else, without ever having heard someone say it? I moved from California to Louisiana, and while my pronunciation / idioms used to get poked at in good cheer, I never deigned to correct the natives - "its the ten freeway, get it right, I should know, it starts in my state!"
      - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
        > And yet you wanted to correct someone else, without ever having heard someone say it? I've heard "Sikh" pronounced many times by native english speakers and that invariably sounds like "seek". Now that I've heard that it's pronounced differently by the Sikhs themselves, I'll aim to use the correct pronunciation. This is an unusual situation in that I am a "native" (i.e. a native of England) and arguably Sikhs are non-native though I'd expect most of them near us were born here. Also, the English have a long history of turning up in other countries and pushing their own religion/language/culture onto the natives, so maybe I'm just a product of my upbringing?
        n4r9 2y ago
        Also from the UK and have just learnt that I've likely been pronouncing it incorrectly. Here is a video where a Sikh uses the word several times and it sounds like "sick": https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kM1-DUTgTC4 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kM1-DUTgTC4 It feels similar to the situation with "Muslim" or "islam", which have a proper "s" sound in Arabic (as in "messy") rather than a "z" sound (as in "music").
        ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
- zdunn 2y ago
  > "e'er" would sound slightly different as it's spoken almost like two syllables, though not quite. I'm a native English speaker (US). Sometimes when I say "ever"/"never", the 'v' sound drops out. So I end up saying "e'er"/"ne'er" but it sounds like "air"/"nair". > Further down the list, I've just spotted "taught, taut, tot" and "tot" doesn't belong there. I pronounce all of these the same
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    I'd say that "taught" and "taut" rhyme with "sport", whereas "tot" rhymes with "spot"
    - zdunn 2y ago
      Right, you said you're from the UK so that's in line with what I would have expected. My unstated point was that multinyms are intrinsically tied to dialects so there is no absolute list of multinyms
      - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
        > multinyms are intrinsically tied to dialects so there is no absolute list of multinyms Definitely. I find it fascinating how pronunciations can change so much geographically and the UK certainly has some variety in that regard. I remember being a kid on a German school exchange and being surprised that they couldn't distinguish between "salary" and "celery". I've also heard that Germans find it almost impossible to pronounce "squirrel". I also had difficulty on a holiday to the U.S. and trying to ask someone in a shop where the "batteries" were. He just couldn't understand me until I described them and he said "Oh! Badderies". My wife also had a problem asking for "Winston's" cigarettes until the lady at the counter exclaimed "Wenston's"

by tgv 2y ago

randallsquared 2y ago

The "are" listed is "a metric unit of measure, equal to 100 square meters", not a conjugation of "be". Google pronounces it like "air".

timerol 2y ago
It's 1/100th of a hectare, and pronounced like the "are" in "hectare".

ndsipa_pomu 2y ago

I'm a native English speaker (UK) and I'd pronounce some of those words differently. Certainly "air" and "are" sound very different. "e'er" would sound slightly different as it's spoken almost like two syllables, though not quite. I'd also take issue with "sick" and "Sikh" as Sikh has a slightly different vowel sound - somewhat longer than the short "i" in sic/sick. I'd say that "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms. Further down the list, I've just spotted "taught, taut, tot" and "tot" doesn't belong there.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bdsa 2y ago
I also would have said "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms until recently when I found out that Sikhs' preferred pronunciation is generally to sound closer to "sick" (aspirate the H if you like)
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  To be fair I don't know any Sikhs, though there is a Sikh community where I live (there's a Sikh temple at the bottom of my road). I'm going to listen out for how Sikhs pronounce it.
  - genewitch 2y ago
    And yet you wanted to correct someone else, without ever having heard someone say it? I moved from California to Louisiana, and while my pronunciation / idioms used to get poked at in good cheer, I never deigned to correct the natives - "its the ten freeway, get it right, I should know, it starts in my state!"
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      > And yet you wanted to correct someone else, without ever having heard someone say it? I've heard "Sikh" pronounced many times by native english speakers and that invariably sounds like "seek". Now that I've heard that it's pronounced differently by the Sikhs themselves, I'll aim to use the correct pronunciation. This is an unusual situation in that I am a "native" (i.e. a native of England) and arguably Sikhs are non-native though I'd expect most of them near us were born here. Also, the English have a long history of turning up in other countries and pushing their own religion/language/culture onto the natives, so maybe I'm just a product of my upbringing?
      - n4r9 2y ago
        Also from the UK and have just learnt that I've likely been pronouncing it incorrectly. Here is a video where a Sikh uses the word several times and it sounds like "sick": https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kM1-DUTgTC4 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kM1-DUTgTC4 It feels similar to the situation with "Muslim" or "islam", which have a proper "s" sound in Arabic (as in "messy") rather than a "z" sound (as in "music").
        ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
zdunn 2y ago
> "e'er" would sound slightly different as it's spoken almost like two syllables, though not quite. I'm a native English speaker (US). Sometimes when I say "ever"/"never", the 'v' sound drops out. So I end up saying "e'er"/"ne'er" but it sounds like "air"/"nair". > Further down the list, I've just spotted "taught, taut, tot" and "tot" doesn't belong there. I pronounce all of these the same
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  I'd say that "taught" and "taut" rhyme with "sport", whereas "tot" rhymes with "spot"
  - zdunn 2y ago
    Right, you said you're from the UK so that's in line with what I would have expected. My unstated point was that multinyms are intrinsically tied to dialects so there is no absolute list of multinyms
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      > multinyms are intrinsically tied to dialects so there is no absolute list of multinyms Definitely. I find it fascinating how pronunciations can change so much geographically and the UK certainly has some variety in that regard. I remember being a kid on a German school exchange and being surprised that they couldn't distinguish between "salary" and "celery". I've also heard that Germans find it almost impossible to pronounce "squirrel". I also had difficulty on a holiday to the U.S. and trying to ask someone in a shop where the "batteries" were. He just couldn't understand me until I described them and he said "Oh! Badderies". My wife also had a problem asking for "Winston's" cigarettes until the lady at the counter exclaimed "Wenston's"