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Michael J Hardy
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:06 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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Maria Conlon (mariaconlon001@hotmail.com) wrote:
| Quote: | I have heard "hee-ro" and "tow-roid". I suspect everybody does that
if the word is a compound like "hayride".
I give. What is "tow-roid"? I'm drawing a blank.
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I'm guessing it's an oddball pronunciation of "toroid", a
commonplace word among everyone except non-mathematicians.
-- Mike Hardy
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Michael J Hardy
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:06 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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| Quote: | For those of us who don't have tense-lax neutralisation before /r/,
the vowels in "ear" and "mirror" are different. The vowel in "mirror"
is /I/, the "short i" of "fit". I also use this vowel in "squirrel",
"satirical", and "Sirius", amongst other words.
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Now I'm getting confused about my own pronunciation.
I do pronounce "mirror" distinctly differently from "near".
To me, the vowels preceeding the "r" in "near", "mirror",
and "be right" all sound different from each other and from
the vowel in "fit". -- Mike Hardy
> Jonathan |
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Joe Fineman
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:07 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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"Maria Conlon" <mariaconlon001@hotmail.com> writes:
| Quote: | I give. What is "tow-roid"? I'm drawing a blank.
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Toroid. A coil wound around a ring, like a solenoid bent around on
itself. My own pronunciation of the word has an r-colored o, as in
"torus", from which it is derived.
--
--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net
||: If you are completely ignorant, you don't have a problem.  |
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Joe Fineman
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:07 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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peter@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
| Quote: | In some parts of the US "mirror" is a one-syllable word, which only
adds to the confusion.
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Ah, yes. There is a song called "Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon", part
of whose charm is that it rhymes "mirror" with "here".
--
--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net
||: First you find out that there is no Santa Claus, then that |
||: there is no God, and then that there are no grownups. | |
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R J Valentine
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:02 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:07:45 GMT John Lawler <jlawler@umich.edu> wrote:
....
} But on second thought, added stress wouldn't necessarily affect the vowel
} quality. Normally tense and lax vowel nuclei neutralize before /r/, but
} here's a clear case of non-neutralization. If, as you suggest, the syllable
} break for people pronouncing 'zero' this way is /'zi.ro/ instead of
} /'zir.o/, then the neutralization wouldn't be triggered, at least by some
} accounts of how it happens. That fact in turn could be used to argue for
} those accounts.
....
Here's me wondering how rounding enters into the word "zero" that early.
--
R. J. Valentine <mailto:rj@smart.net> |
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Nell
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:00 pm
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 01:47:51 GMT, Joe Fineman <joe_f@verizon.net>
wrote:
| Quote: | "Maria Conlon" <mariaconlon001@hotmail.com> writes:
I give. What is "tow-roid"? I'm drawing a blank.
Toroid. A coil wound around a ring, like a solenoid bent around on
itself. My own pronunciation of the word has an r-colored o, as in
"torus", from which it is derived.
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I don't have the faintest as to how I would pronounce it as it is a
word that hasn't come up, either in conversation or in school, for me.
I was thinking it was New Yorkese for thyroid, though why that would
have anything to do with the telephone, unless talking to a doctor, I
don't know. |
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Nell
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:00 pm
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 20:28:04 GMT, "raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net>
wrote:
| Quote: |
"Jonathan Jordan" <jonathan.jordan@sheffield.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:2vjc5lF2mk8j0U1@uni-berlin.de...
"raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:8%Ykd.398039$D%.93286@attbi_s51...
"Michael J Hardy" <mjhardy@mit.edu> wrote in message
news:4193eb40$0$561$b45e6eb0@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu...
What is the geographic distribution of this pronunciation,
which makes the vowel in the first syllable sound like the
vowel in "feet"? I've always been accustomed to pronouncing
it with the vowel heard in the first syllable of "mirror",
which I expect Richard Fontana would tell me is the same as
the short "i" in "fit". -- Mike Hardy
In eastern Mass. we say it 'zair o' .iIve never heard it said 'zee
ro' or
in any way mirroring the pronunciation mirror.
Do you have the "chair"/"cheer" merger? (=AreffE "Are you ChICh or
ChINCh?")
Jonathan
cheer has a cheese sound that ch air doesn't .
I love these pronouciation threads , soon I'm not sure how i really say
something after I say it a few dozen times.
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Everybody is mumbling these words to themselves. I pronounce sill as
seel.
Cheer is *not* chair, at least I don't think it is. (mumble, mumble). |
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Robert Bannister
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 6:00 am
Post subject: Re: zeeeee-ro |
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Jonathan Jordan wrote:
| Quote: | "Areff" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2vj2ntF2mke0kU1@uni-berlin.de...
Michael J Hardy wrote:
What is the geographic distribution of this pronunciation,
which makes the vowel in the first syllable sound like the
vowel in "feet"? I've always been accustomed to pronouncing
it with the vowel heard in the first syllable of "mirror",
which I expect Richard Fontana would tell me is the same as
the short "i" in "fit". -- Mike Hardy
I don't pronounce "zero" in either of those ways. I use the "near"
vowel.
It may be a matter of syllable division: /zir oU/, whereas
"zee-row"
would be /zi roU/.
Vaguely related question: is Cairo, Illinois really "Kay-ro" or is it
"Cair-o"? In my accent the "say" vowel, like the "see" vowel, doesn't
normally occur before /r/ - the spelling <air> followed by a vowel
suggests the "Mary" vowel.
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I heard a strange split last night on TV: just caught the end of it -
some awful singer attempting what might have been the New Zealand
anthem. It wasn't really the way he split it into "zee - land", but the
fact that he made a noticeable pause between the two that made it sound
so odd.
--
Rob Bannister |
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