[Ads-l] Capsule ['k æpʃʲʊl]

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 29, 2020, at 6:16 PM, Mark Mandel <markamandel at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Australian English
> https://youtu.be/abuptkDdbLI
> About 2:20
> 
> This may be very familiar information to those who are concerned with it,
> but I don't know much about Australian accents academically.
> 
> MAM
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Haven’t heard it myself and it’s not listed among the OED’s recorded variants, but it does make a kind of sense, since we get palatalization of /sju/ before /r/—sure we do—and “capsule” isn’t structurally that different from, say, “capture”, so why not before /l/?  And -tule palatalizes as well as in “pustule” (memorably eggcornicized as “pus jewel”, as some will recall). Are there other words ending in -sule?  I don’t seem to have a backward dictionary on me.  Palatalization in “consul” seems less likely, but how about “consulate”?  I’ll ask my Australian colleague next chance I get.  Null hypothesis is that it’s a one-off spelling pronunciation.  

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