free variation in pronunciation

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Tuesday, April 3, 2001 1:52 pm +0800 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> At 10:18 PM -0400 4/2/01, David M. Robertson wrote:
>> US? Does the "in-" variation in such words tend to be British, and the
>> "en-" American? I tend to spell them en- and pronounce them In-.
>>
> How about when stressed?  I'd think "inquiry" is U.S. and "enquiry"
> British rather than the other way around.


inquire/inquiry are US.
enquire/enquiry are UK.

This is confused by the Enquirer.  I think you see more of the en-
spellings in the US than you do of the in- spellings in the UK.  There's
also ensure/insure, the latter of which has more senses, of course, but
which can be interchangeable in the one (ensure) sense in the US, although
I think many (orthographically aware) people do make a differentiation.

Lynne


M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320