Commonly mispronounced words

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

I hope you're not indulging in spelling flames.

~snip

Nope, just yanking your chain because you're being dour. There's nothing wrong with being helpful or with being accurate, both are commendable.
That said, I got the impression you were working awfully hard and wanted to make sure you were having fun.... not forced into a stance where you had to work hard.

If I was right, lighten up, have fun, carry on.
If I was wrong, then my apologies and as you were.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I've always explained the phonemes in squirrel to be the result of the voiced open consonant R having an influence on the vowel sound preceding it. Among other results this makes fir a near rhyme with fur. I can feel my throat articulating more widely open with fur, but the difference between the two in most ordinary or rapid speech is pretty subtle.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Brianna

How do you pronounce barett? You know--those things girls wear in their hair to keep it out of their eyes, etc. Is it Bar-Et or Brett? And, how do you spell it? Barrett? Barett? Barret? Baret? It's been driving me crazy for years.

Barrette is pronounced closer to Burrett.

But I guess they spell it differently in Ohio. Spelling is something that we take quite seriously here in Pennsylvania. Especially if you live in Conshohocken.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

I knew the correct pronunciations of "squirrel" because I had recently looked them up in a pronunciation dictionary (Longman's) as a part of a recent discussion on the pronunciation of "squirrel" and "stirrup" on a linguistics forum.

Am I following this correctly?

AE: Stur-rup
BE: Steer-up

(This is why "hurry" and "furry" rhyme for many Americans but not for British speakers.)

I'm not getting how these two words would be spoken differently by a British speaker.

[Aliantha]

hurry sounds like h-u-rry (open U) while furry sounds like fir-ry (a true er sound).

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by wolf

Am I following this correctly?

AE: Stur-rup
BE: Steer-up

It's reasonably close but IIRC the vowel is closer to the short vowel in "hit":
BE: Sti-rup
Note that the r is doubled in the spelling; doubled consonants often follow a short vowel. So BrE pronounces "stirrup" more or less as it is spelt, whereas AmE has a somewhat different pronunciation that appears to be based on the pronunciation of "stir". (Based on that, I guess one could also argue that the AmE pronunciation follows the spelling.)

Originally Posted by wolf

I'm not getting how ["hurry" and "furry"] would be spoken differently by a British speaker.

"hurry" - just say "hut" without the "t" and then add a "ry" on the end ("hu-ry"). It's actually fairly easy to say.

I find the hurry-furry merger to be quite interesting from a linguistic point of view because it is one of the few vowel mergers that seems to create no homophones.

[Sundae]

Hurry rhymes with curry
Furry rhymes with blurry

Of course this assumes the AE pronounces curry and blurry the same way BE does

[DanaC]

mmmm......curry......hurry up with the curry.....

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Hurry rhymes with curry
Furry rhymes with blurry

Of course this assumes the AE pronounces curry and blurry the same way BE does

All four of those words rhyme.

[Cloud]

[quote=xoxoxoBruce;323876]Nope, just yanking your chain because you're being dour. /QUOTE]

ooh, that's a good mispronounced word! "dour"-- like "do-er" not like flour.

[monster]

Originally Posted by wolf

All four of those words rhyme.

In British English, Furry and Blurry have pretty much the same vowel sounds as Early.

but Flurry is pronounced like Curry and Hurry.

Then, just when you thought you were getting it, there's the other Furry which does rhyme with Hurry. The Helston Furry -a dance.

Is all this getting anyone in a fury?

For the curious, Fury in British English rhymes with "FuckthisforagameofskittlesI'moffdownthepubforabevvy"

Perhaps respelling is the answer?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by monster

In British English, Furry and Blurry have pretty much the same vowel sounds as Early.

but Flurry is pronounced like Curry and Hurry.

All six of those words rhyme.

[DanaC]

ooh, that's a good mispronounced word! "dour"-- like "do-er" not like flour.

That very much depends on what accent/dialect you speak and what area you come from.

[Undertoad]

Everyone in Britain said I said "emu" wrong in a way that made them laugh.

I saw saying "E-moo"

It was supposed to be "E-myoo"

[DanaC]

yup. Like Duty. You guys say Dooty (or...Doody) I think. Whereas for Brits, it's Dyooty