Dip-thong

[David Bowie]

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