Another "how do you say" / "what do you call this" poll

[pne]

[Poll #757711]

Comments

[nyssa.livejournal.com]

On further reflection, I should probably have picked "other" for the first question; someone else mentioned the words "pin" and "pen", which I make a point to pronounce differently. The way I pronounce "again" rhymes most closely with "pin", not "pen" (which rhymes with "hen", etc.).

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I find it surprising that people would pronounce "pin" and "pen" the same, although I guess I shouldn't really be surprised about the way that anyone pronounces anything. :)

[pne.livejournal.com]

I find it surprising that some people distinguish "horse" and "hoarse". Or "weight" and "wait".

I guess I generalise distinctions or lack thereof from my accent to others.

[nyssa.livejournal.com]

Here in the Southern US, people tend to get a little sloppy with their words. ;) I'm one of those few that manages to care. Generally, people around here pronounce both words like "pin".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

'Cept the South is the last bastion of the wh/w distinction in the USA. There are people down there who can't believe how sloppy folk are who pronounce whale and wail like wail.

[nyssa.livejournal.com]

Very true, I do pronounce the "wh" in whale, as do many other people I know. :)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You can't spend much time learning about the phonology of American English without running into the pen/pin merger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_the_high_front_vowels#Pin-pen_merger). What I find weirder is the split that comes about from æ-tensing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_short_A#.C3.A6-tensing), but I guess that's just because no one around here speaks like that.