JNW's English

The pronunciation of words, as per Jonathan North Washington

[ʌ]

• strawberry - [ˈstʰɻʌbÆɹij]
• wash - [wʌʃ]
• Washington - [ˈwʌʃɪŋtɩn]
• squash - [skwʌʃ]

[wɔ]

• quarter - [ˈkʰɔɹɾɻ] (but quarry - ['kwɔɻij])
• quartz, quarts, courts - [kʰɔɹts] (is there a difference in aspiration?)

[ɛ]

• catch - [kʰɛʧ]
• that (conj) - [ðɛt]

[ʌj]

• /ɑj/ before voiced consonants is [ɑj]
  • 'eyes' [ɑjz]
  • 'bide' [bɑjd]
• /ɑj/ before unvoiced consonants is [ʌj]
  • 'ice' [ʌjs]
  • 'bite' [bʌjt]
• there are "exceptions" (they could be rule-based, having something to do with what counts as syllable-coda)
  • Idaho [ʌj], Ida [ʌj]
  • cider [ʌj], spider [ʌj]
  • icon [ɑj], nikon [ʌj], daikon [ɑj]
  • cyclops [ʌj / ?ɑj], but psycho [ʌj / *ɑj]
• interesting contrasts:
  • high [ɑj], high school [ʌj]
  • 'I scream' [ɑj], 'ice cream' [ʌj]

[Æ]

See Æ for phonetic information on this vowel.

• /ej/ before /l,r/ is [Æ]
  • ail/ale - [Æl]
    • Al - [æl] (shows /æ/Æ/ contrast)
    • trailer (before a movie) - [ˈtˢɻʰÆlɻ]
    • trailer (behind a truck) - [ˈtˢɻʰejlɻ]
    • mailing / Maling (/Æ/ej/)
    • Beowulf (/Æ/)
      • tractor-trailer (the way I said it as a kid) - [ˈtˢɻʰæktɻ ˌtˢɻʰÆlɻ]
      • those two 'trailer's have recently merged to [ˈtˢɻʰejlɻ], but trail+er is still [ˈtˢɻʰÆlɻ]
    • nightmare - [ˈnʌjtmejɻ]
    • "night mare" - [ˈnʌjtmÆɻ]
  • air - [Ær]
• /æ/ before /m,n/ is [Æ]
  • an, hand - [Æn], [hÆnd]
    • Hannah - [ˈhænə]
• /æ/ before /ŋ,g/ is [æj]
  • wagon, hang - [wæjgɩn], [hæjŋ]

/ɩ/ (vs. /ə/ & /ɪ/)

• Reduced vowels are typically realised as [ə] in English:
  • about — [ə ˈbau̯t]
  • beneath — [bə ˈniːθ]
  • Winnepesauki — [wɪ nə pə ˈsɒ ki]
  • onomatopœia — [ɑ nə mɑ ɾə ˈpiː ə]

• In closed syllalbes, reduced vowels are realised as [ɩ]:
  • This is visible in the application of several morphemes.
    • rose-s — /ˈɻɤo̯ zɩz/
    • test-ed — /ˈtʰɛ stɩd/
    • ox-en — /ˈɑk sɩn/
  • This can be seen in many other words.
    • Jonathan — /ˈʤɑ nə θɩn/
    • happen(ed) — /ˈhæ pɩn(d)/
  • This can also be demonstrated derivationally.
    • religion — /ɻə ˈlɪ ʤɩn/
    • religionise — /ɻə ˈlɪ ʤə nɑi̯z/ (some less morphemic parsings lend to /ɻə ˈlɪ ʤɩ nɑi̯z/, with an almost syllabic [ʤ̩] often

• In a closed syllable with a labial coda, reduced vowels are realised as [ə]:
  • This is visible in the application of several (clitical) morphemes.
    • he'll've — [ˈhɪl əv]
    • get 'em — [ˈgɛ ɾəm]
  • This is visible in some other words, though I can mostly only think of names and made-up words.
    • item — [ˈʌi̯ ɾəm], victim — [ˈvɪk(t) təm]
    • Jacob — [ˈʤe kəp]
    • Caleb — [ˈkʰei̯ ləb]
    • *soroft — [ˈsɔɻ əft]
  • I take that back; I seem to've found some good examples
    • turnip — [ˈtɻnəp]
    • victim — [ˈvɪkt təm]
    • system — [ˈsɪs stəm]
    • bottom — [ˈbɑ ɾəm]
    • custom — [ˈkʌs stəm]
    • olive — [ˈɑləv]
    • exclusive — [ɛkˈsklusəv]

• Data that still need to be considered:
  • words like:
    • confuse
    • condition
  • other words like:
    • civil, civilisation
    • get 'im vs. get 'em
    • presumably (how do I syllabify this??)
  • the pair mistake [mɨ(s)ʼstejk] / mistook [mɪs'tʊk]

[ɒ] as an allophone of /ɑ/

• /ɑ/ → [ɒ] / _ {ɻ,l}
• Except before /l/ it seems to be only at the end of syllables (or morpheme boundaries):
  • collar / caller = [kɑlɻ̩] / [kɒlɻ̩]
  • similar to Maling / mailing = [mei̯lɪŋ] / [mᴁlɪŋ] above

voicing

Some consonants are [un]voiced in a way that's unexpected:

• Jacob — [ˈʤe kəp]
• Virginia — [ˈfɻʤɪnjə]
• substitute — [ˈsʌpstɪtʉt]
• hubcap — [ˈhʌpkæp] (?)
• ostrich, sandwich — [ ˈɒstɻɪdʒ], [ˈsÆndwɪdʒ]

other

• comfortable - [ˈkʰʌ̃ftʰɻb(ə)ɫ]
• Wednesday - [ˈwɛn(d)zdej]
• February - [ˈfɛbjʉwÆɻij]
• Adirondecks - [ædɻ̩ˈɑndæks]

Elision

• fam(i)ly
• fav(ou)rite
• ast(e)roid
• priv(i)lege
• p(o)tato
• p(a)thetic
• k(a)tana
• t(o)mato

of /r/??

• su(r)prise
• rese(r)voir
• kinde(r)garten
• Feb(r)uary
• cate(r)piller

Words I never got

Because of the loss of sarcasm in fixed expressions using these words (or something like that), I never could tell what they meant—the general idea was there, but as far as I could tell, their antonyms seemed as correct as they did, if not more.

• immaculate
• impeccable
• trivial

Other People

My Family

Some family members have "weird" pronunciations:

• [ˈdɑjəpɹ] for [ˈdʌjpɹ] ("diaper")
• [ˈdɑjəmənd] for [ˈdɑjmɩnd] ("diamond")
• [hɒp] for [hɑp] ("hop")
• [ˈrɛs.stɻ.ənt] for [ˈrɛs.stɻ.ɑnt] ("restaurant")
• [wɪð] for [wɪθ]
• [bə ˈkʌs] for [bə ˈkʌz]
• [ə sow ʃij ˈej ʃɩn] for [ə sow sij ˈej ʃɩn] ("association")
• [mə ˈtɻ jəl] for [mə ˈtijɻ ij əl] ("material")

Media

Some media (music, commercials) have objectionable rhymes:

• pauper/copper/whopper
• choclate/pocket
• ‘ooh and aah’ where ‘aah’ == ‘aww’
• see also: Other People's English

Overall vowel system

JNW's Vowels

location	tense	lax	diphthong	before ɻ	examples
high front	i(i̯)¹	ɪ,ɨ	ɪu̯	i (j ← ɪu̯)	heed, hid, hued, hear/pure
mid front	e(i̯)¹	ɛ		ᴁ	hayed, head, hair
low front	ᴁ	æ¹	au̯	— (au̯ ← au̯)	hand/hail, had, how, —
low back	ɒ³	ɑ	ɑi̯	ɒ (ai̯ ← ai̯)	hawed, odd, high, hard
mid back	ɤ(u̯)¹³	ə	əi̯	ɔ	hoed, hut, height, hoard/horde/whore
high back	ʉ(u̯)¹³	ʊ³	ɔi̯	ɔ	hoot, hood, Hoyt, tour

Notes:

• ¹ Long or diphthongal
• ² Can be nucleus of heavy syllable
• ³ Rounding optional
• Maybe /o/ is the the dipthongal mid-front vowel, and /ɻ/ is tense mid-back vowel.. but then there'd be two before-/ɻ/ versions for mid-front... hm.
• Maybe the mid-front gap is because /əu̯/ from GVS merged with /au̯/. And maybe this gap is the cause for Valley Girl o → /ɛu̯/.

Generalisations:

• Back vowels rounded before /ɻ/, front vowels not; back vowels generally more likely to be rounded
• All back tense vowels have optional rounding. Yiddish /ɔ/ borrowed as JNWE /ə/.
• Non-low tense vowels are optionally long or diphthong
• Front vowels diphthongise to back high point; back vowels to front high point. The tense vowels are opposite. Hmm...

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