Saturday, March 12, 2011

smoothing, Indianapolis, Indinapolis

http://www.englishforums.com/English/KrisChinKrisCheeChristian/pcwgc/post.htm#1265511


There is a phenomenon called compression or smoothing. That's in the work when you hear "kris-chin". Similarly, 5 syllable pronunciation of California contains similar process; ditto for the 2 syllable pronunciation of India. You observe it wherever you see vowel digraphs that require 2 syllable pronunciation in the "preacher speak".

In some cases, you end up deleting the latter vowel: indinapolis for "indianapolis", for instance.

There are some idiots out there that tell you to avoid these non-standard pronunciations. Master non-standard prounciations and find why they have been pronouced that way by a large group of native speakers. If you know the why, you are on the right track, since that knowledge is subconscious to native speakers.

No comments: