Phoenetic spelling sure can be a pain

[Izulde]

So I'm in my English Language class and we're going through how to spell words phonetically using the International Phoenetic Alphabet. It's pretty easy work all in all, until we get to one section.

My classmates give the answers to keg and egg as with the e sound like in bet. (so eh if you're saying it out loud)

I raise my hand and ask if it wouldn't be keg and egg with a long a sound like in ate, because that's how I always say it and hear it.

Prof spends about two minutes thinking it over and says, "That's an excellent question and I'd give you credit for it because it is based on the pronounciation that you say or that you hear."

Then he asks as a point of interest if anyone else in the class pronounces keg or egg with the long a sound.

I'm the only one.

Prof goes off on a tangent after that talking about how the writer of our textbook phoenetically spells things with a Bostonian accent and starts talking about how when he taught the course down in Georgia he used a textbook written by a couple Southerners and the way the class spelled Georgia phoenetically and the way he did it was different, so he looked in the book and the book agreed with the class. That made me think of FOFC.

Then we're in the next set of exercises where we're reading sentences and indicating which places have the a sound like in bat. (called an ashe or something like that but that's neither here nor there)

My turn comes up and I indicate catch as one of the words. Prof laughs and says, "No, the standardized way not the way you say it in this case." Rest of class laughs and I'm like "Um, can you skip me?" because the ashe sound is the most difficult for me to distinguish and I've been lost this whole set of exercises on what is and isn't an ashe sound.

So then the whole class goes through it and I discover that the standard form of catch is with the eh sound.

...Yeah, so far this class is what I thought it was, a bear to get through, but I'm hoping I'll be able to turn it around when we get to Old and Middle English, where I've at least got the background of doing translation work.

So does anyone else pronounce keg and egg and catch the way I do or am I on crack?

[JonInMiddleGA]

If I managed to translate this into sound correctly, you mean like "kaig" & "aig"?

If so, I don't know anyone off-hand who uses that pronunciation anymore, but it wasn't all that unusual to hear that way from people in the South in the ages between my grandparents & my great-grandparents (I'll be 40 this spring, you can do the math). At least in my experiences with it, no offense intended, most common to hear in the lesser educated social classes.

Now the last example surprises me a bit. Again, if I'm reading/hearing it correctly, "ketch" is actually the standard? Because in my mind, it's more of a common pronunciation, while catch (as in bat) is more "proper".

[rkmsuf]

I like to spell it "kegg". Feels right.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I JUST STAND ON THE STREET CORNER AND YELL "FOXTROT UNIFORM" AT PASSERS BY!!!

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

If I managed to translate this into sound correctly, you mean like "kaig" & "aig"?

If so, I don't know anyone off-hand who uses that pronunciation anymore, but it wasn't all that unusual to hear that way from people in the South in the ages between my grandparents & my great-grandparents (I'll be 40 this spring, you can do the math). At least in my experiences with it, no offense intended, most common to hear in the lesser educated social classes.

Now the last example surprises me a bit. Again, if I'm reading/hearing it correctly, "ketch" is actually the standard? Because in my mind, it's more of a common pronunciation, while catch (as in bat) is more "proper".

I'm with Jon. I didn't match your keg and egg pronunciation, but I did match your catch pronunciation. English isn't the most phonetically obvious language, but I can't see where "ketch" would be a standard. That just seems to break more rules than usual.

[Ksyrup]

I pronounce keg with the 'eh' but egg was the long 'a' and catch as 'ketch'. Always have.

How do you guys pronounce bury? My wife, originally from New Jersey, pronounces it rhyming with "flurry," while I have never heard it pronounced that way. The only way I've said it and heard it pronounced is rhyming with 'dairy.'

It drives me crazy and I correct her without even thinking about it - even though she may be right, technically (I don't know). I just point out that she gets her pronunciation from a woman who says "warsh" for wash, and that usually ends the discussion...

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I pronounce keg with the 'eh' but egg was the long 'a' and catch as 'ketch'. Always have.

How do you guys pronounce bury? My wife, originally from New Jersey, pronounces it rhyming with "flurry," while I have never heard it pronounced that way. The only way I've said it and heard it pronounced is rhyming with 'dairy.'

It drives me crazy and I correct her without even thinking about it - even though she may be right, technically (I don't know). I just point out that she gets her pronunciation from a woman who says "warsh" for wash, and that usually ends the discussion...

I'm with you on this one. I don't know if it is right, but my pronunciation of bury is closer to berry than flurry.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

How do you guys pronounce bury? My wife, originally from New Jersey, pronounces it rhyming with "flurry," I just point out that she gets her pronunciation from a woman who says "warsh" for wash, and that usually ends the discussion...

Both "burry" and "warsh" are again quite common with older Southerners, but I've never heard them from anyone except the most rural residents.

How the heck those are shared with NJ escapes me (unless she's got native Southerners back in the family tree a bit)

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Both "burry" and "warsh" are again quite common with older Southerners, but I've never heard them from anyone except the most rural residents.

How the heck those are shared with NJ escapes me (unless she's got native Southerners back in the family tree a bit)

All of her relatives in NJ pronounce burry and warsh that way. No southerners in the family at all, until they moved to Florida. And until a couple of years ago when they moved to Jacksonville and my wife moved to Tally with me, they were in South Florida, which ain't exactly southern.

[Franklinnoble]

I still pronounce "wash" with an "r".

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I still pronounce "wash" with an "r".

rash?

[Izulde]

Evidently ketch is the standard for catch, because it wasn't one of the a sounds that was like in bat.

Regarding bury I pronounce it like a rime of dairy. The only time I ever use the -urry where the traditional way is -airy is, oddly enough, with strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry.

Blackberry and berry itself I pronounce as -airy. It's really strange.

[lordscarlet]

I'm relatively new here, but I assume the Harvard Dialect Survey has been posted before?

http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL...stics/dialect/