How to say "either" and "neither"

[Tom Zurinskas]

Interestingly, thefreedictionary.com has the word "either" spoken in US as ~eether and in UK as EYE-ther ~iether (~ie as in "tie").  I noticed that Rachael Maddow who was raised in California says ~iether.  But she got her political science doctorate at Oxford, where it would be ~iether.

I think prez Obama says ~iether as well.

I wonder what "unnatural" sounds like.  http://www.manythings.org/audio/sentences/256.html

Interesting "dialect blog" site   http://dialectblog.com/


Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk






>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: How to say "either" and "neither"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Apr 21, 2013, at 11:06 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
> > Several times on TV news for "either" I've been hearing EYE-ther instead of EE-ther which is what the dictionaries say is US accent and what I'm used to. Is someone promoting EYE-ther. Perhaps UK.
> >
> >
> I'd say invest in some new dictionaries. The ones I have list both pronunciations; either seems natural to me. The /i/ pronunciation is more frequent in the U.S. to be sure, but variation doesn't mean a plot, or even a promotion campaign. Maybe, as the song suggests, you could call the whole thing off.
>
> LH
>
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