Odd BE pronunciations (was "Jump Study")

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jan 25 17:07:09 UTC 2008


As noted, "study" is a common pronunciation of "steady." In like manner:

sledge (hammer) > sludge ("Cain't beat it wif a sludge hammuh!" = "the
best"), sloidge [sl^jdZ]

flesh > flush, floish [fl^jS]

judge > jedge, jurdge, joidge [dZ^jdZ]

much > murch, moich [m^jC]

perch > poich [p^jC]

coin > curn

girl >  goil [g^jl'] (with palatalized /l/)

/w/ > [v] : "I _vant_ to be in that numbuh" (Louis Armstrong singing
"When the Saints Go Marching In"; also used by Little Richard, Chuck
Berry, et al. when singing. I can't say whether it occurs in speech.)

0 > [r] : Leave my _raffairs_ alone. I got tears all in my _ryes_.
Etc. (Many, many blues, R&B, and doo-wop singers. Also heard in
ordinary speech.)

@ > [l] : " ... took my reefle out my han' (rare)

@ > [r] : "roaches on my tabre" (*really* rare in utterance-final
position, as in this case)

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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