Commonly mispronounced words

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

Now, now. Surely you can tell a typo when you see one?

Once is a typo. Multiples in the same paragraph is misspelling.

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Once is a typo. Multiples in the same paragraph is misspelling.

I hope you're not indulging in spelling flames.

Despite your assertions, they were typos. I make repeatable typos fairly often because I type words using muscle memory and my typing is not the best. Some frequent typos of mine include "because" as "becuase" and "to the" as "tot he". "Pronunciation" is another word where I sometimes make the same typo, in this case omitting a "c". I usually catch my typos before I post but on this occasion these ones escaped into the ether.

I knew the correct pronunciations of "squirrel" because I had recently looked them up in a pronunciation dictionary (Longman's) as a part of a recent discussion on the pronunciation of "squirrel" and "stirrup" on a linguistics forum. These words were of interest because these are the only two words in English (or at least the only two words we could find at the time) where the vowel in "bit" with a following "r" in British English is replaced by the vowel in "earth" in American English. It is more usual for the vowel in "but" with a following "r" in British English to be merged with the vowel in "earth" in American English. (This is why "hurry" and "furry" rhyme for many Americans but not for British speakers.)

For the record, one syllable or two are both acceptable for "squirrel" according to Longman.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

I hope you're not indulging in spelling flames.

~snip

Nope, just yanking your chain because you're being dour. There's nothing wrong with being helpful or with being accurate, both are commendable.
That said, I got the impression you were working awfully hard and wanted to make sure you were having fun.... not forced into a stance where you had to work hard.

If I was right, lighten up, have fun, carry on.
If I was wrong, then my apologies and as you were.

[Cloud]

[quote=xoxoxoBruce;323876]Nope, just yanking your chain because you're being dour. /QUOTE]

ooh, that's a good mispronounced word! "dour"-- like "do-er" not like flour.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

I knew the correct pronunciations of "squirrel" because I had recently looked them up in a pronunciation dictionary (Longman's) as a part of a recent discussion on the pronunciation of "squirrel" and "stirrup" on a linguistics forum.

Am I following this correctly?

AE: Stur-rup
BE: Steer-up

(This is why "hurry" and "furry" rhyme for many Americans but not for British speakers.)

I'm not getting how these two words would be spoken differently by a British speaker.

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by wolf

Am I following this correctly?

AE: Stur-rup
BE: Steer-up

It's reasonably close but IIRC the vowel is closer to the short vowel in "hit":
BE: Sti-rup
Note that the r is doubled in the spelling; doubled consonants often follow a short vowel. So BrE pronounces "stirrup" more or less as it is spelt, whereas AmE has a somewhat different pronunciation that appears to be based on the pronunciation of "stir". (Based on that, I guess one could also argue that the AmE pronunciation follows the spelling.)

Originally Posted by wolf

I'm not getting how ["hurry" and "furry"] would be spoken differently by a British speaker.

"hurry" - just say "hut" without the "t" and then add a "ry" on the end ("hu-ry"). It's actually fairly easy to say.

I find the hurry-furry merger to be quite interesting from a linguistic point of view because it is one of the few vowel mergers that seems to create no homophones.