opportYOUnity

[Randy Alexander]

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:05 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Native speakers are known to produce differences they cannot hear, but
> all three (clause included) sound identical to me. BB

If I'm not mistaken, they're also known to "hear" differences that
they do not produce.  For example, I have the same vowel in "male" and
"man", but one is thought of as a long A sound, and the other a short
A sound.  This notion invalidates a lot of dialect survey work that
was done by asking people questions on paper (or over the internet),
like "do you say 'Mary', 'merry', and 'marry' the same way?"  Not that
many people don't say them differently, but many people may say them
the same way but think they say them differently because they are
affected by the spelling (or other factors).

Randy
(in Cincinnati, OH, over the holidays)

> On Dec 23, 2008, at 7:59 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> Disregarding that the correct pronunciation of "Claus" is 'klows"
>> ("ow" as in "ouch", and "s" not "z"), I think I pronounce "Claus" and
>> "claws" differently -- more "w" in "claws".  For me, "Claus" is like
>> "clause".
>>
>> Or am I missing the fact that Ben is joshing?  (What does "klahz"
>> rhyme with?)
>>
>> Joel
>>
>> At 12/23/2008 10:27 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>> But the *correct* pronunciation of Claus and claws is indeed the
>>> same:
>>> klahz; just ask anyone in my family. Those who would clutter the
>>> English language by adding superfluous vowels are truly demonic
>>> because doing so will lead to children being completely unable to
>>> figure out how to read. BB
>>>
>>> On Dec 23, 2008, at 7:19 PM, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I'm beginning to *thing* the "awe-droppers" have some kind of
>>>>> speech
>>>> impediment to mispronounce Santa Claus.
>>>>
>>>> Much like the language impairment involved in the dropping of [ng]
>>>> for [k]
>>>> by some writers.
>>>>
>>>> Scot
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 12/23/08, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> A Bank of America commercial puts "you" in "opportYOUnity".
>>>>> Interesting.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, I heard today somewhere on TV - Santa Clahz (~klaaz).  Yes,
>>>>> is there
>>>>> no respect by these infernal "awe-droppers".  Unfortunately m-w.com
>>>>> is
>>>>> infected.  The word "Claus" should be spoken the same as claws.
>>>>> But in
>>>>> m-w.com "claws" ~klauz spoken clahs ~klaaz even though the
>>>>> phonetics show
>>>>> an o with a dot over it (~au in truespel) which should be ~Klauz.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm beginning to thing the "awe-droppers" have some kind of speech
>>>>> impediment to mispronounce Santa Claus.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org