Dip-thong

David Bowie db.list at PMPKN.NET
Mon May 22 18:41:31 UTC 2000


From:    Kim & Rima McKinzey <rkm at SLIP.NET>

<snip>

: And no one has brought up ophthalmologist.  Not only is the ph an
: issue, but how many of you actually pronounce that first l?

<David timidly raises his hand>

Um, well, like, i do. At least variably.

But then again, i generally pronounce the l in talk and folk (but never
calm). Throws the more observant of my students into giggles when they
hear it, and i've had my audible l in talk commented on even when i'm in
very relaxed speech mode, so i'd presume it's not just a
hypercorrection.

Of course, just to prove i'm not *entirely* bizarre, i pronounce the ph
in ophthalmologist as a p.

One more thought on diphthong--might the dipfthong pronunciation (the
one i think, but am not sure, that i use) be a simple case of timing?
That is, for some people the ph gets pronounced as a p (simple
dissimilation--fricative-fricative becomes stop-fricative), but the
manner changes slightly before the place does, giving what sounds like
affricate-fricative.

I bring up the possibility from the case of Thomson/Thompson--both the
same word and pronounced the same way (with the p) because voicing cuts
out before place and manner are over with.

David Bowie, whose .sig is broken



More information about the Ads-l mailing list