Pee-oh-nee with the stress on the second syllable, I think.
What about rhinoceros, which I pronounce Wry-naw-ser-us, emphasis on the second syllable, unless I'm using the phrase "stomach like a rhinoceros" in which case it's Ree-no-sair-us, emphasis on the first syllable.
Pee-oh-nee with the stress on the second syllable, I think.
What about rhinoceros, which I pronounce Wry-naw-ser-us, emphasis on the second syllable, unless I'm using the phrase "stomach like a rhinoceros" in which case it's Ree-no-sair-us, emphasis on the first syllable.
Interesting - definitely a o sound in the second syllable for me, as in not, never "naw" as in naught.
One that irritates me intensely on modern menus in pretentious pubs: "cauliflower steak", which of course has never been near a cow in its life.
Cauliflower Cross-section doesn't have the same ring to it.
The fashion's passed now (I hope) but time was ingredients were forever 'nestling' - frequently on the same plate as 'jus', in which case they ought really to be paddling.
Another thing I've noticed is Hands. Hand-cut chips, hand-raised pies, hand-placed in the microwave...
Related, why must a meal be 'plated'? What's wrong with serving it?
Tbf, plating is what you do in the kitchen, serving is where it is placed in front of you in the correct orientation and you are introduced to the ingredients 'This is your braise of pigeon giblets with sautéed kale and strawberry reduction in a miso jus'.
Related, why must a meal be 'plated'? What's wrong with serving it?
I'm quite happy for my meal to be plated. If I need to use a knife and fork I'd rather it wasn't "bowled" or "wood plattered" just because that's the fashion.
"alternate" is now used with the meaning of "alternative".
Now? That usage is attested to at least a few centuries ago. And there are even older examples of alternative being used to mean what is more typically meant by alternate.
"alternate" is now used with the meaning of "alternative".
Now? That usage is attested to at least a few centuries ago. And there are even older examples of alternative being used to mean what is more typically meant by alternate.
In my world it was comparatively unique to hear it used that way.
You literally must have had more humpty dumpties where you were.
"alternate" is now used with the meaning of "alternative".
Now? That usage is attested to at least a few centuries ago. And there are even older examples of alternative being used to mean what is more typically meant by alternate.
In my world it was comparatively unique to hear it used that way.
You literally must have had more humpty dumpties where you were.
"alternate" is now used with the meaning of "alternative".
Now? That usage is attested to at least a few centuries ago. And there are even older examples of alternative being used to mean what is more typically meant by alternate.
In my world it was comparatively unique to hear it used that way.
You literally must have had more humpty dumpties where you were.
"alternate" is now used with the meaning of "alternative".
Now? That usage is attested to at least a few centuries ago. And there are even older examples of alternative being used to mean what is more typically meant by alternate.
In my world it was comparatively unique to hear it used that way.
You literally must have had more humpty dumpties where you were.
It's almost like language is a dynamic thing that is constant and consistent over neither time nor distance.
TV adverts frequently rattle my cage.
The main offender at the moment is one for Mazda cars, which the advert assures me are "crafted" in Japan.
No they bloody well aren't. They are mindlessly put together by robots.
On the other hand I quite enjoy the ones for cleaning products that end with the instruction "Keep away from children." I have found this to be an excellent motto.
I'm hearing vacation more and more here, replacing holidays.
I think I've lost my battle with schedule: even my parents are now saying sked-yul.
I say sked-yule. It's from studying in Canada in my 20s. I'm sure I must have heard shed-yule in the UK as I was growing up, but it's simply not a word we use often, whereas in Canada, people said it all the time, where Brits would say timetable. So in that short time in Canada, decades ago, I heard the word schedule many more times than I've heard it in the UK in my whole life!
Garage is another one. Obviously I knew the word, but I heard it way many more times in Canada, because it was so much more common there for people to have one to put their car(s) into, whereas Brits (at least the ones I know) more often have a front drive, or park on the road outside. As with schedule, I hadn't even noticed that I'd changed my pronunciation, until a kid at a school I was working in asked me why I said guh-RAZH rather than GA-ridge.
Nuclear is another one that is creeping into UK-speak as nucUlar among those who wish they were down with the kids but are old enough to know better.
How is it spelled in the USA?
Our house says shedule.
Nuclear is another one that is creeping into UK-speak as nucUlar among those who wish they were down with the kids but are old enough to know better.
How is it spelled in the USA?
It’s spelled nuclear here. Nu-CYU-lar is a common mispronunciation that I’m sure has some linguistic explanation. REAL-a-tor for realtor* is another example of the same phenomenon.
*Realtor is a trademarked term in the US, intended to be used only by members of the National Association of Realtors, who may be real estate agents or brokers. But like Kleenex, Xerox or Hoover, it has become a generic term.
I am puzzled by the insistence of some people that the first 'r' in 'February' is silent. It surely never used to be. I rather like the idea that the month of my birth has a brewery in it.
I am puzzled by the insistence of some people that the first 'r' in 'February' is silent. It surely never used to be. I rather like the idea that the month of my birth has a brewery in it.
I can’t think of any American accent or dialect where the r in February is pronounced. If it ever was pronounced here, that pronunciation seems to have died out a long time ago.
I was thinking about 'nucular' the other day. It is a speech process, but usually the other way round - I remember my youngest sister saying 'ridicleeyus' as a little kid. This sort of switch is common in kids, because saying clee-yuh is easier (in terms of speech development - kids can say it sooner) than cyoo-luh. So I was wondering if nucular is a sort of hyper correction, a sub-conscious thinking it must be right because nuclear sounds like it might be a childish error.
Or maybe just a simple case of getting confused with other words that are that way, like particular, molecular, secular, perpendicular, ventricular, etc. There are a lot of them, more than words ending in -clear, and you are likely to have occasion to hear and say even more of them as you get older, because a lot of them are used in health conditions - macular degeneration, supraventricular tachycardia, testicular cancer, etc. So I can imagine it might be easy to carry it over to nuclear, even if you learnt it correctly as nuclear, because it's not a commonly used word anyway.
I am puzzled by the insistence of some people that the first 'r' in 'February' is silent. It surely never used to be. I rather like the idea that the month of my birth has a brewery in it.
Around here it's the the a that is silent - Februry.
I am puzzled by the insistence of some people that the first 'r' in 'February' is silent. It surely never used to be. I rather like the idea that the month of my birth has a brewery in it.
Around here it's the the a that is silent - Februry.
I say it like that, Februry, with a schwa for the u, and sometimes it shortens to Febry when I'm talking fast. Though both feb-ruh-ree and feb-ree are the main pronunciations in the OED, and they seem to be typical RP. Followed by feb-yoo-ree and feb-yoo-uh-ree. I see those as avoiding two r's in a row, which can be tricky for kids.
As a little kid, learning the months, I chanted jan-yoo-erry, feb-broo-erry, which has a nice rhythm for chanting, and makes them easier to pronounce, but in speech, those are more American pronunciations. Rather like the Glaston-brie v Glaston-berry meme that was trending for a while - cheese for the Brits and berries for the Americans.
I have realised there is a phonetic reason for this. When Brits have a 'r' between two vowels, we say it the same as a 'r' at the beginning of a word. Americans, however, say it the same as their rhotic r's at the end of vowels, which also impact the vowel before. This is a generalisation, of course - I am aware some American accents aren't rhotic. Some British ones are, but they aren't affected in the same way.
I should add this is a phenomenon documented and discussed by linguists - not just me making an amateur observation, though I do observe it too. My particular observation here is how it affects how we say words ending in -ary/-ury/etc.
I pronounce all the letters in February, but run the u and a together so that they are barely distinguishable.
Or at least that's what I 'hear' in my head - might not be what is actually coming out of my mouth.
This got me to thinking, how do I pronounce February?
After saying it a few times, adding in a couple of the examples you all have mentioned, I believe I, my family and friends all say it pretty much the same: Feb-you-wary.
Consistent with what @jedijudy says, the American pronunciation I typically hear is FEB-yə-wary (or FEB-you-wary), with one r not being pronounced at all and with a w being substituted for the other r. That’s how I say it.
That’s the first pronunciation Merriam-Webster gives. It also has this note:
How do you pronounce February?: Usage Guide
Dissimilation may occur when a word contains two identical or closely related sounds, resulting in the change or loss of one of them. This happens regularly in February, which is more often pronounced \ˈfe-b(y)ə-ˌwer-ē\ than \ˈfe-brə-ˌwer-ē\, though all of these variants are in frequent use and widely accepted. The \y\ heard from many speakers is not an intrusion but rather a common pronunciation of the vowel u after a consonant, as in January and annual.
Merriam-Webster, of course, reflects American usage.
There's also the issue of speed of speech, I think somebody mentioned /febry/, which I think is quite common in England. So I may have several different pronunciations of the same word.
Though I admit "Des Moines" and "St Louis" and the Celtics would have me stumbling. On the US I remember asking at Lake Tahoe while hiring skis (maybe it was rental...) which queue I should get into. The woman looked confused. "Line" my friend now living there said. It is interesting that words you think are universal turn out not to be.
On r, I remember a visiting German telling me our not pronouncing r at the end of words like car was very confusing to her. She thought a "ca" was a completely different thing. That's leaving aside out habit of abbreviating things (arvo, afternoon, servo, service (petrol/gas) station...)
Hrrmph... I reckon that anyone who can say 'brewery' should be able to manage 'February' without excessive effort or anguish. I am shocked at how intolerant I am over this one, but regrettably, it is one of many.
The stresses in the two words don't fall in the same pattern. If it was Fe-BREW-ery, it would be easier. But handling two unaccented syllables in a row, with an r front and back of them, is too much for many American tongues.
Comments
Insisting on a spelling pronunciation in *English*, of all languages, is somewhat bizarre.
Pee-own-ee, with emphasis on the second syllable?
Or Pee-uh-ni, stress on first syllable?
What about rhinoceros, which I pronounce Wry-naw-ser-us, emphasis on the second syllable, unless I'm using the phrase "stomach like a rhinoceros" in which case it's Ree-no-sair-us, emphasis on the first syllable.
Interesting - definitely a o sound in the second syllable for me, as in not, never "naw" as in naught.
Nor have tuna or pork steaks.
Cauliflower Cross-section doesn't have the same ring to it.
The fashion's passed now (I hope) but time was ingredients were forever 'nestling' - frequently on the same plate as 'jus', in which case they ought really to be paddling.
Another thing I've noticed is Hands. Hand-cut chips, hand-raised pies, hand-placed in the microwave...
Tbf, plating is what you do in the kitchen, serving is where it is placed in front of you in the correct orientation and you are introduced to the ingredients 'This is your braise of pigeon giblets with sautéed kale and strawberry reduction in a miso jus'.
As for peony and rhinoceros, they’re always PEE-ə-nee and rye (or rih)-NAH-sə-rəs where I am.
“Look I’m sorry, I just don’t see what’s wrong with this relationship.”
Definitely a noss rather than a nahss round here.
I'm quite happy for my meal to be plated. If I need to use a knife and fork I'd rather it wasn't "bowled" or "wood plattered" just because that's the fashion.
In my world it was comparatively unique to hear it used that way.
You literally must have had more humpty dumpties where you were.
Touching my base is strictly limited.
We see what you did there!
It's almost like language is a dynamic thing that is constant and consistent over neither time nor distance.
I think I've lost my battle with schedule: even my parents are now saying sked-yul.
The main offender at the moment is one for Mazda cars, which the advert assures me are "crafted" in Japan.
No they bloody well aren't. They are mindlessly put together by robots.
On the other hand I quite enjoy the ones for cleaning products that end with the instruction "Keep away from children." I have found this to be an excellent motto.
I say sked-yule. It's from studying in Canada in my 20s. I'm sure I must have heard shed-yule in the UK as I was growing up, but it's simply not a word we use often, whereas in Canada, people said it all the time, where Brits would say timetable. So in that short time in Canada, decades ago, I heard the word schedule many more times than I've heard it in the UK in my whole life!
Garage is another one. Obviously I knew the word, but I heard it way many more times in Canada, because it was so much more common there for people to have one to put their car(s) into, whereas Brits (at least the ones I know) more often have a front drive, or park on the road outside. As with schedule, I hadn't even noticed that I'd changed my pronunciation, until a kid at a school I was working in asked me why I said guh-RAZH rather than GA-ridge.
How is it spelled in the USA?
Our house says shedule.
*Realtor is a trademarked term in the US, intended to be used only by members of the National Association of Realtors, who may be real estate agents or brokers. But like Kleenex, Xerox or Hoover, it has become a generic term.
Or maybe just a simple case of getting confused with other words that are that way, like particular, molecular, secular, perpendicular, ventricular, etc. There are a lot of them, more than words ending in -clear, and you are likely to have occasion to hear and say even more of them as you get older, because a lot of them are used in health conditions - macular degeneration, supraventricular tachycardia, testicular cancer, etc. So I can imagine it might be easy to carry it over to nuclear, even if you learnt it correctly as nuclear, because it's not a commonly used word anyway.
Around here it's the the a that is silent - Februry.
I say it like that, Februry, with a schwa for the u, and sometimes it shortens to Febry when I'm talking fast. Though both feb-ruh-ree and feb-ree are the main pronunciations in the OED, and they seem to be typical RP. Followed by feb-yoo-ree and feb-yoo-uh-ree. I see those as avoiding two r's in a row, which can be tricky for kids.
As a little kid, learning the months, I chanted jan-yoo-erry, feb-broo-erry, which has a nice rhythm for chanting, and makes them easier to pronounce, but in speech, those are more American pronunciations. Rather like the Glaston-brie v Glaston-berry meme that was trending for a while - cheese for the Brits and berries for the Americans.
I have realised there is a phonetic reason for this. When Brits have a 'r' between two vowels, we say it the same as a 'r' at the beginning of a word. Americans, however, say it the same as their rhotic r's at the end of vowels, which also impact the vowel before. This is a generalisation, of course - I am aware some American accents aren't rhotic. Some British ones are, but they aren't affected in the same way.
I should add this is a phenomenon documented and discussed by linguists - not just me making an amateur observation, though I do observe it too. My particular observation here is how it affects how we say words ending in -ary/-ury/etc.
Or at least that's what I 'hear' in my head - might not be what is actually coming out of my mouth.
After saying it a few times, adding in a couple of the examples you all have mentioned, I believe I, my family and friends all say it pretty much the same: Feb-you-wary.
That’s the first pronunciation Merriam-Webster gives. It also has this note: Merriam-Webster, of course, reflects American usage.
Canberra: can-bra
Melbourne: mel-bn
Brisbane: bris-bn
Though I admit "Des Moines" and "St Louis" and the Celtics would have me stumbling. On the US I remember asking at Lake Tahoe while hiring skis (maybe it was rental...) which queue I should get into. The woman looked confused. "Line" my friend now living there said. It is interesting that words you think are universal turn out not to be.
On r, I remember a visiting German telling me our not pronouncing r at the end of words like car was very confusing to her. She thought a "ca" was a completely different thing. That's leaving aside out habit of abbreviating things (arvo, afternoon, servo, service (petrol/gas) station...)