That's a glottal plosive.
Silent Letters
- Thread starter Cornholio
- Start date
That's a glottal plosive.
Yes, I've noticed the different pronunciation of "aunt" - it's one of the sounds I can't make. It's not quite the same as "ant" but it's close. There's a children's book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom that rhymes Aunts with Pants, I couldn't fathom how that could be until little miss trampledamage read it for me.
I still can't figure out "saw", but thanks to the movie Wall-E I can do the "Boll" pronunciation of ball rather than my own "bawl" sounding. The robot Wall-E's name is said to sound like the name "Wally" - that joke doesn't work when you say wall like I do, with the phantom R that Miss Chicken mentioned.
wow! this thread is just full of cool umm, linguistic type information and stuff. I think it's also the first thread I've started that made it over 100 posts.
thanks for all the contributions, I think my IQ is up a point or two after readin' everything.
I still hate silent letters though.
thanks for all the contributions, I think my IQ is up a point or two after readin' everything.
I still hate silent letters though.
That's a glottal plosive.
Oooh, I think you're right
I just call it swallowing my "T"s - I do it a lot, little miss trampledamage keeps correcting me ("it's Kee-Ton Mummy, Kee-Ton")
That's a glottal plosive.
You mean a "glo' 'al plosive"?
“When we were little,” the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, “we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise —”
“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?” Alice asked.
“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily: “really you are very dull!”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX
I didn't get the “tortoise – taught us” pun until I listened to a recording of the book by Australian-born actor Cyril Ritchard, who narrated the tale in a perfect RADA accent -- and did the voices of all the characters as well!
“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?” Alice asked.
“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily: “really you are very dull!”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX
I didn't get the “tortoise – taught us” pun until I listened to a recording of the book by Australian-born actor Cyril Ritchard, who narrated the tale in a perfect RADA accent -- and did the voices of all the characters as well!
I can't remember which poem it is now, but we were studying Yeats at school and there's one poem where it only rhymes if you read it with an Irish accent.
How similar is Swedish to Norwegian and to Danish? As a Swede can you easily understand Norwegian and Danish?
ah, the Young Ones, I remember them well. probably the second best show ever on MTV.
and of all the silent letters, the silent 'p' is my least favorite.
Like the silent "P" in surfing?
It has been a fun read. If you're interested in linguistics I'd recommend Pinker's "The Language Instinct," a very read.wow! this thread is just full of cool umm, linguistic type information and stuff. I think it's also the first thread I've started that made it over 100 posts.
thanks for all the contributions, I think my IQ is up a point or two after readin' everything.
I still hate silent letters though.
I'm particularly enjoying reading people's perceptions of others' accents. There are so many variations! I recall a thread in which a Brit poster here commented that I sounded more Irish to him than American (he'd been expecting a thick New York accent from me). I thought it was odd, because none of the Irish accents I'd heard sounded at all like my very American accent to me. Recently, I watched a British show with an Irish actress whose accent sounded very close to many American accents, and I could see where the BBSer was coming from.
As to the American pronunciation of "aunt," it's been my experience that generally people from the south east, and speakers of AAVE pronounce "aunt" to rhyme with "haunt," while most others pronounce it as a homophone to "ant."
The obtrusive R is interesting. I'm from Seattle originally and people in Western Washington certainly don't use an obtrusive R, but people in Eastern Washington often do, so that the name of the state is pronounced "Warshington." People in Eastern Washington sometimes pronounce the initial vowel sounds in words like "treasure" and "measure" as a long A, "TRAY-sure" and "MAY-sure," something I've not come across anywhere else.
I've encountered the occasional random person who speaks this way, but I could never figure out where their accent came from.
I have never heard "haunt" that way.
Similar threads
