"Silver Tsunami" (first "boomer" files for Social Security)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/16/07, James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> It's not clear what the (t) in m-w's pronunciation
> means - is the 't' optional, or does this indicate
> placing the tongue against the teeth but going to the
> 's' without pronouncing, or very weakly pronouncing,
> the 't'?

>From M-W's pronunciation guide:

----
http://www.m-w.com/help/pronguide.htm
Parentheses are used in pronunciations to indicate that whatever is
symbolized between them is present in some utterances but not in
others; thus factory \'fak-t(&-)rE\ is pronounced both \'fak-t&-rE\
and \'fak-trE\, industry \'in-(")d&s-trE\ is pronounced both
\'in-d&s-trE\ and \'in-"d&s-trE\. In some phonetic environments, as in
fence \'fen(t)s\ and boil \'boi(&)l\, it may be difficult to determine
whether the sound shown in parentheses is or is not present in a given
utterance; even the usage of a single speaker may vary considerably.
----

--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org