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]
• antenna - [ɛnˈtɛnə]

[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, or maybe part-of-speech?)
  • Idaho [ʌj], Ida [ʌj]
  • cider [ʌj], spider [ʌj]
  • icon [ɑj], nikon [ʌj], daikon [ɑj]
  • cyclops [ʌj / ?ɑj], but psycho [ʌj / *ɑj]
  • irregular plurals:
    • life [ləi̯f] → lives [ləi̯vz], *[lai̯vz]
• 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]
    • sherrif ­— [ˈʃᴁɻəf]
    • Phillip — [ˈfɪləp]
    • gossip — [ˈgɑsəp]

• Words with "normal" reduced /ɪ/
  • culprit — ['kəlprɪt]

• 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]
  • holler / hauler = [hɑlɻ̩] / [hɒlɻ̩]
  • similar to Maling / mailing = [mei̯lɪŋ] / [mᴁlɪŋ] above
  • collie [kɑli]
  • cauliflower [kɑləflawɻ̩]
  • also similar to /ə/ and /ʌ/ merging and then splitting again to [ə] and [ɨ] (the latter of which's merged with /ɪ/ now).

voicing

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

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

other

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

Elision

/ə/ in first syllable

• p(o)tato
• p(a)thetic
• k(a)tana
• t(o)mato
• v(a)riety

/ə/ elsewhere

• fam(i)ly
• fav(ou)rite
• ast(e)roid
• priv(i)lege
• sev(e)ral

/ɻ/, apparently

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

Clitics

Object pronouns

• Notes:
  • vowels in cliticised forms are shorter than in full forms (e.g. mi, jʉu̯, etc are shortened)

Object pronouns

	example	me	you	him	her	it	us	them
full forms	—	[mi]	[jʉu̯]	[hɪm]	[hɻ]	[ɪʔ] (/ɪt/)	[əs]	[ðɛm]
i_	see	[simi]	[si.ʉu̯]	[si.ɪm]	[si.ɻ]	[si.ɪʔ]	[si.əs]	[si.əm]
u_	sue	[sʉmi]	[sʉjʉu̯]	[sʉ.ɪm]/[sʉwɪm]	[sʉ.ɻ]/[sʉwɻ]	[sʉ.ɪʔ]/[sʉwɪʔ]	[sʉ.əs]/[sʉwəs]	[sʉ.əm]/[sʉwəm]
t_	hate	[heʔmi]/[hei̯mmi]	[heʔjʉu̯]/[hei̯ʧə]	[hei̯ɾɪm]	[hei̯ɾɻ]	[hei̯ɾɪʔ]	[hei̯ɾəs]	[hei̯ɾəm]

Other

• I don't [ai̯ə̃u̯ʔ]

Subject pronouns

This page illustrates some (synchronic) irregularities in English pronoun+clitic combinations. This focusses mainly on cliticised forms of "to be" and "to have" in JNW English.

An E in the Actual column means the Expected forms are also found, but only in hypercorrect speech.

Orthography	Pronoun	Clitic	Expected	Actual	Reduced
we're	wi(i̯)	ɻ̯	'wijɻ	(E) wᴁɻ̯	wɻ
we've	wi(i̯)	əv	'wi(jə)v	wi(i̯)v	wɨv¹
you're	jʉ(u̯)	ɻ̯	'jʉwɻ	(E) jɔɻ̯	jɻ
you've	jʉ(u̯)	əv	'jʉ(wə)v	jʉ(u̯)v	jɨv¹
they're	ðe(i̯)	ɻ̯	ðejɻ	ðᴁɻ̯	ðɻ

• ¹ Note that /ɨ/ is not otherwise permitted before a closed syllable ending in a labial

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

Family-specific vocabulary

• glurpy
• heffle
• zitis
• scrumfle

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	ɻ diphthong	examples
front
high	i(i̯)¹	ɪ/ɨ	ɪu̯	iɻ̯, jɻ	heed, hid, hued, hear, pure
mid	e(i̯)¹	ɛ	—	ᴁɻ, —	hayed, head, hair
low	ᴁ	æ¹	au̯	—, awɻ/aɯ̯ɻ̯/aɻ̯	hand/hail, had, how, —, hour/how're
back
low	ɒ³	ɑ	ɑi̯	ɒɻ̯, ai̯ɻ̯	hawed, odd, high, hard, hire/higher
mid	ɤ(u̯)¹³	ə	əi̯	ɔɻ̯, —	hoed, hut, height, hoard/horde/whore
high	ʉ(u̯)¹³	ʊ³	ɔi̯	ɔɻ̯, ɔjɻ	hoot, hood, Hoyt, tour, lawyer

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...

JNW's vowel system

	Front				Back
	peripheral	base	diphthong	with ɻ	base	peripheral	diphthong	with ɻ
High	i	ɪ	ɪu̯	iɻ̯	ʊ	ʉ	ɔi̯	ɔɻ̯
Mid	e	ɛ	—	ᴁɻ̯	ə	o	əi̯	ɻ
Low	ᴁ	æ	æu̯		a	ɒ	ai̯	ɒɻ̯

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