Pronouncing drug names (w. note for Wilson)

[Mark Mandel]

"Robert"? "robber(y)"?

On Jan 30, 2008 10:19 AM, Damien Hall <halldj at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

>      For
> example, in both Britain and America there's a cough medicine called
> <Robitussin>:  but my American girlfriend pronounces it ['rowbItuhsIn]
> (where
> 'uh' = wedge), whereas Brits pronounce it ['rObItuhsIn]. ...
>  maybe, by attraction from the word 'rob', though against the example of
> words like 'robot'?  That presents a phonotactic problem for Brits, with
> the
> onsetless second syllable, but off the top of my head I can't think of
> another
> explanation.  Nor do I know what might have caused the two communities to
> pronounce it differently in the first place.
>


--
Mark Mandel

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