<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: tumeric/turmeric &
donut/doughnut</title></head><body>
<div>At 2:35 PM -0500 10/16/00, Mark Odegard wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I would not call 'turmeric' an
active-vocabulary item. It's one of those words you see on the
ingredient-list of condiments, especially prepared
mustards.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>For those who do have it in their active
vocabulary, it likely follows the same rule as the first R in
'surprise'. Most people drop it, even if their speech is otherwise
remorselessly rhotic, as with General American.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Mark.<br>
<blockquote> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>I have to disagree here. I do have "turmeric" in
my active vocabulary as well as on my active spice shelf (I cook a
good deal of Indian food) and I'm pretty sure I always retain the
"r", although I've heard "tumeric" from
others. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I regularly say
"suprise" in fast (or normal) speech. I think this is
partly a frequency effect, or it may be partly lexical. I would
never say "supass" for "surpass"; maybe it's
partly that we learn words like "surprise" as children and
thus are more comfortable with the least-efforty pronunciation.
My old collegiate dictionary actually provides a neat kind of support
for what I'm trying to say here in giving a three-way contrast:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>surpass [s@r-'paes]</div>
<div>surprise [s@(r)-'prayz]</div>
<div>turmeric ['t@rm-(@-)rIk], ['tum-] (I've taken the liberty
to ascii-ize the representations.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--that is, there are two different pronunciations for
"turmeric", corresponding (I'd argue) to two separate
underlying forms for different groups of speakers (I won't say
dialects), while there are basically two register-related alternants
for "surprise". </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry</div>
</body>
</html>