Unanswered Questions
37 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
8
votes
0
answers
220
views
Historical pronunciation of Hindi यह and वह
The Hindi 3rd person singular proximal and distal pronouns यह and वह are commonly pronounced [jeː] and [ʋoː], in contrast to the [hyper-correct?] pronunciations [jəɦ(ə)] and [ʋəɦ(ə)] one might expect ...
- 3,132
7
votes
0
answers
204
views
Northumbrian pronunciation of ge-/gi- prefix and -g suffix
I'm working on a musical setting of Cædmon's Hymn, and I'd like to have the primary setting be in the Northumbrian dialect of its earliest written example (the 737 "Moore" Bede manuscript). I'm ...
- 87
5
votes
0
answers
448
views
Cellar door and Indo-European languages
Where I grew up (UK) there was a pub called The Drysalters. I always liked this name without having any idea what a drysalter was, or having any association or emotional connection to the pub itself.
...
- 31.1k
3
votes
0
answers
123
views
Can a trill be creaky?
Or in other words, is it possible to pronounce [ʙ̰], [r̰], [ʀ̰], or [ʢ̰]?
I tried to pronounce these phones by myself, and I always failed. It seems the airstream from the constricted glottis cannot ...
- 337
3
votes
0
answers
84
views
Is there any IPA TTS software that also considers tone
I want to create audio files for a conlect of Chinese I am studying, and therefore tone is one aspect I have to consider. Many of the IPA to speech software I've seen so far don't consider tone (or ...
- 31
3
votes
0
answers
127
views
The schwa in [meɪkəθ] for *maketh* in KJV English
This Wiki article seems to suggest that words like makes had lost their final syllable schwa in normal speech already by Chaucer's time (palmeres > palmers is the example they give). The rule, as ...
- 267
2
votes
0
answers
120
views
How did Otto Jespersen figure out the Great Vowel Shift?
How did Otto Jespersen figure out the Great Vowel Shift?
Surely, there were no pronunciation audio recordings available.
How did he know how British people had pronounced vowels centuries ago?
Have ...
- 121
2
votes
0
answers
108
views
Does aspiration propagate to the following vowel?
My native language is Korean, which is notorious for its three-way distinction (plain vs. tense vs. aspirated) of (non-nasal) stops. As such, I tried to analyze my own pronunciation.
Then I found that ...
- 337
2
votes
0
answers
85
views
What is the origin of the pronunciation difference between 'replicate' (noun) and 'replicate' (verb)?
In English, the noun 'replicate' is pronounced with a schwa (ə) at the end while the verb is pronounced with the diphthong 'eɪ'. The same is true for the word 'duplicate'. Is there a more general ...
2
votes
0
answers
58
views
How much of a difference does vowel mergers make to perception of fluency?
Listening to some example French conversations between an experienced, fluent speaker and an inexperienced learner, I noticed by chance that the experienced speaker differentiates between similar ...
2
votes
0
answers
130
views
Apico-alveolar consonants in Romagnol Italian and certain accents of Chinese: is that a thing?
Once upon a time were me and my brother, spending time at my grandma's in Romagna. We discovered she pronounced /ʃ/ almost like /s/, and even made fun of that by having her say «Schubert, Schumann e ...
- 507
2
votes
0
answers
103
views
Does a good pronunciation improve one's ability to learn a language?
My father is a native Spanish speaker. He struggles with English pronunciation, and even though he has studied many English courses, he seems to be stuck. Once I talked with a phonetics teacher, with ...
- 151
2
votes
0
answers
683
views
Thai pronunciation symbols and rules on IPA
Where can I find a set of IPA symbols for Thai language pronunciation and its rules? I know IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) was mainly created to represent the differences in sounds of words ...
- 351
2
votes
0
answers
803
views
Uvular Fricative Trill vs Uvular Fricative vs Preuvular Fricative
I'm having trouble differentiating the uvular trill, uvular, and preuvular fricatives.
While I understand that the preuvular variant is more fronted, it sounds to me like many acclaimed uvular ...
- 5,029
2
votes
0
answers
58
views
Dictionary of English Dialects
I am working on simulating what changing the English orthography (s.t. it would be (more) transparent) would do to the reading process. A natural question that arises is: If the spelling is tailored ...
