|
|
Thanks all, "murderer" is perhaps a better example to use because
"furor" does have multiple pronunciations. I guess the answer is that
there's no easy answer, which is OK--but quite interesting.
Cheers
Michael
Mike Wright wrote:
> Bart Mathias wrote:
>
> > jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> >> Michael wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> I had to come up with an IPA transcription for the word "furor" today
> >>> (leaving the second syllable unstressed, without an "oh" sound), and
> >>> I'm a bit confused as to what it should be. After all, the "-or" is
> >>> clearly the alveolar approximant (upside down "r" in IPA), but what
> >>> about the preceding "r"? It doesn't make any sense to write "fjurr"
> >>> with two r's.
> >>
> >> You've run into the reason that a lot of non-Americans say Pres. Bush
> >> talks about "tairists". And I do too, or pretty close. You should
> >> hear me on "rural" or "caterer". I think what I do when I'm careful is
> >> keep my tongue and lips in the same position but lower my jaw a bit and
> >> then bring it back. (That is, my jaw goes high-low-high.) Sorry, I
> >> don't know whether there's IPA for that.
> >
> > I had a student from Baltimore once who said "murderer" in a way that
> > sounded like "murder" to me.
> >
> > Until I saw Nathan Sanders' reply to this query, I had always vaguely
> > assumed that a "rer" would result from the same sort of relaxation and
> > re-exertion (probably not the proper phonetics term) that made "ye"
> > /yIy/ and "woo" /wUw/ possible, but sure enough I have very clear lip
> > movement on the second "r" of "murderer," none on the first or last, and
> > none on either "r" of "murder," which seems to mean there is more
> > involved in "murder" than putting an "-er" on "murder."
> >
> > I must say I'm a bit dismayed.
>
> Hey, Bart!
>
> I can tell that my "murder" and "murderer" are different, but I'm sure
> having a hard time pinning down just what's going on in there. I've said
> it over and over until my throat's sore.
>
> The "erer" of "murderer" certainly takes longer than the "er" of
> "murder". There seems to be some tightening of the throat between
> "murder-" and "-er", but not a full abrupt glottal stop.
>
> At other times, it seems to come out like "murder-rer". It's not the
> same as my other, more casual pronunciation, but it doesn't feel wrong,
> either.
>
> I'd better stop saying for three days to let my pronunciation drift back
> to normal, whatever that may have been. Besides, I don't want to stress
> my voice--I have a Bluegrass jam session tonight.
>
> --
> Mike Wright
> http://www.raccoonbend.com
|
|