words starting with "ex"

Paul Johnston paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU
Fri Jul 27 19:59:52 UTC 2007 

Tom,
As a sociolinguist, I'd have no problem talk ing about "majority
forms" in a case like this, but (1) it'd be based on a LOT more
instances than three, preferably involvinfg a large number of
speakers--and I'd keep good tabs on inter-speaker variation (& see if
it correlated with something like age, gebnder, social class, network
membership, region, race, etc.) and, again (2) I'd probably look at a
number of ex- words, carefully distinguishing between those accented
on the ex- and those where it's unstressed.  I'd also look at
individual items, but I'd make sure I got a lot of tokens.  I'd
probably also add "barred i" as a variant--as a Jerseyite, I know I
have barred i in a number of the unstressed forms.  Some other areas
might have a centralized /E/ as a possibility, too.  To conclude
anything on the basis of only a few instances hides the variation
that exists, and is methodologically insane.

Paul Johnston
On Jul 27, 2007, at 8:52 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: words starting with "ex"
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> I just heard an ad for "expedia.com" in which the talker clearly said
> "ixpedia" in the ad at least once, but in the end he said slowly and
> deliberately "expedia".  Faced with this free variation, I'd have
> to go with
> "ex", and possibly give "ix" as a secondary as a pronunciation
> guide.  I
> assume m-w.com is shooting for the majority form of pronunciation.
> That
> would still be "ex" in USA in my estimation.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> See truespel.com - and the 4  truespel books plus "Occasional
> Poems" at
> authorhouse.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>> From: ronbutters at AOL.COM
>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: words starting with "ex"
>> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:08:32 +0000
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
>> Subject:      Re: words starting with "ex"
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> "Free variation" means 'some people say one thing one time and
>> another
>> thing the next, even in pronouncing the same word'. Using MY ears, I
>> conclude that [I] and [E] tend to be in free variation in words
>> beginning
>> in "ex-". Reading books can be a good thing: books can tell us
>> what other
>> students of language have concluded on the basis of rigorous
>> scientific
>> testing in publications that are subject to vigorous peer review.
>> That is
>> the way that science works: scientific studies are valued; casual
>> anecdotes
>> are of little or no value, especially when the anecdotes are
>> framed in an
>> ideological framework that ignores the facts about human linguistic
>> behavior .
>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>
>> Date:         Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:30:59
>> To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] words starting with "ex"
>>
>>
>> I collect data all the time, listening to meda.  Having respelled the
>> English language phonetically, I'm as expert as anyone.  That's
>> why I think
>> "ex" is most often pronounced in USA as short e, or an allophone
>> thereof,
>> rather than short i or an allophone thereof.
>>
>> I asked here for data, for opinions.  No one here apparently feels
>> qualified
>> enough to give an opinion on this subject.  It amazes me that
>> people don't
>> trust their own ears.  They say, like you, go read a book and see
>> what
>> "some
>> expert (ixpert?)" says.
>>
>> Send us some sound files, Amy, to show us the diffence between
>> "ix" and
>> "ex"
>> for some words and let us hear which sounds more typical.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> See truespel.com - and the 4  truespel books plus "Occasional
>> Poems" at
>> authorhouse.com.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> From: Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: words starting with "ex"
>>> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:12:24 -0400
>>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: words starting with "ex"
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----------
>>>
>>> You misunderstand me:
>>>
>>> What I want to say in a very direct way is this: leave M-W out of
>>> it,
>>> go out and collect your own data in the wild, and study the
>>> linguistic field of phonology/phonetics. Take Laurence Urdang's
>>> advice.
>>>
>>> ---Amy West
>>>
>>>> Date:    Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:32:37 +0000
>>>> From:    Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject: Re: words starting with "ex"
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Amy,
>>>>
>>>> I really should say that the m-w.com site is truly a marvelous free
>>> resource
>>>> and commend Marriam-Webster and all that worked on it for a fine
>>>> job.
>>>> Hearing the spoken word actually revolutionizes the dictionary.
>>>> Sound
>>> files
>>>> must be used in this forum as well.  This is a wonderful thing they
>> did.
>>>>
>>>> Many of the issues I address I believe are due to changing
>> pronunciation
>>>> over time that legacy phonetic spelling hasn't kept up with, or
>>>> due to
>>> mixed
>>>> accents.  I certainly never intimated that the pronunciation
>>>> were "from
>>> the
>>>> wild."
>>>>
>>>> I agree that phonetic spelling is needlessly cryptic and should be
>> redone
>>> in
>>>> an English friendly way so it's more accessible, especially for
>>> instructing
>>>> in reading and English pronunciation.  That's the thrust of
>>>> truespel.
>>>>
>>>> What you seem to have said below is that my reliance on m-w.com
>>>> as a
>>>> pronunciation guide for typical USA accent is a good one because
>> m-w.com
>>> is
>>>> ably quality controlled, with the proviso that regional accents
>>>> will
>>> vary.
>>>> I agree with you.
>>>>
>>>> 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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