words starting with "ex"

[Scot LaFaive]

>Do you think this is correct for American dialect?

Which American dialect?

Scot


>From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: words starting with "ex"
>Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 03:36:18 +0000
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      words starting with "ex"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Words starting with "ex"
>
>There are 64 words in the top 5,000 words of English that start with "ex"
>according to the word-count analysis of English media text by Collins
>Cobuild.
>They are listed below.  Of interest is how the first sound of "ex" is
>pronounced
>by the speakers in m-w.com.  They may say it with "short e" or "short i."
>They are faithful to the phonetic spelling that m-w.com provides.
>Without peeking at m-w.com, take the test.  Which words take which
>pronunciations for "ex."  Do you think this is correct for American
>dialect?
>
>The words are listed in order of popularity
>1       example
>2       experience
>3       except
>4       exactly
>5       expected
>6       expect
>7       exercise
>8       extent
>9       explain
>10      explained
>11      extra
>12      expression
>13      extremely
>14      existence
>15      expensive
>16      exist
>17      extreme
>18      expressed
>19      excellent
>20      exchange
>21      existing
>22      examination
>23      express
>24      extraordinary
>25      experienced
>26      explanation
>27      examples
>28      excitement
>29      executive
>30      extended
>31      excuse
>32      exciting
>33      expert
>34      existed
>35      exposed
>36      examined
>37      excited
>38      exact
>39      expansion
>40      experiences
>41      exists
>42      exercises
>43      experts
>44      experiment
>45      examine
>46      external
>47      experiments
>48      expenditure
>49      exhausted
>50      exception
>51      expense
>52      expecting
>53      extension
>54      extend
>55      explaining
>56      explosion
>57      exploitation
>58      examinations
>59      extensive
>60      expectations
>61      exhibition
>62      excess
>63      exposure
>64      explains
>
>
>
>
>According to m-w.com over eighty percent of the words start with "short i".
>In the count of word instances in text, it's eighty six percent.  I
>personally believe that this is more UK than USA accent.
>
>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>See truespel.com - and the 4  truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at
>authorhouse.com.
>
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