Fun with Phonology

No, wait! Wait, come back! Phonology is fun, I promise.

Phonology is the study of sound systems: why many native Spanish speakers say "estudy Espanish" and why Americans aren't sure how to get their mouths around Gstaad.  Phonology offered me an entirely sensible explanation when a little boy on my caseload started saying "bagel" instead of "camel." See?  What fun?

One of the things I noticed when we moved to Scotland was that they used a lot more "y" sounds than I was used to. Styupid. Nyewspaper. Dyuty, to use Mary's example. Because I am a phonology geek, I pondered this. In American English, omitting a "y" where it belongs is quite conspicuous. If someone says "bootiful moosic from the footure," you notice. (You also wonder what, precisely, he thinks he is talking about.) If a wedding usher says "May I show you your poo?" when he means "pew," you really notice. I was suddenly curious: did Americans sound that odd to Britons? I started adding in the occasional "y."

In most dialects of American English we don't use a "y" sound after tongue-tip sounds like /t, d, n/. It also drops out in some less familiar words where it actually belongs even on this side of the ocean. Legoom instead of legyume. Scoot instead of scute. Spur-ious instead of spyur-ious. (Spellcheck is having a cow about this post, waving its little hands and saying, "Will you stop already with the 'y' thing?") If it were sturious instead of spurious, I'd never have mentioned the difference, since we don't pay attention to that in my part of the world. But spur-ious makes me think of someone saying "coo the boogles" when he means "cue the bugles," or "poor" when he means "pure."

Today one of my classmates teased me about saying "spurious," suggesting that I'd confused it with "furious." But really, what native English speaker would say "furry-us" when she meant "furious"? I find her amusement curious. Curry-us, she might prefer me to say.

Comments

[amy]

This post was fascinating and makes me miss my linguistics classes from my grad program.

Ahhhh, phonology... I'll keep listening for that /y/.

[amy]

This post was fascinating and makes me miss my linguistics classes from my grad program.

Ahhhh, phonology... I'll keep listening for that /y/.

[mary]

You know where I got this dyuty thing from? L.M. Montgomery. She talks in one of her journals about someone pronouncing duty as "dooty" (and I think she makes some snooty [snyooty?] comment about it) and I couldn't figure out what the heck she meant. I finally had to look up the pronunciation.

The other one she makes an issue out of (in "Magic for Marigold") is interesting. She always makes a point for Marigold to say things are "int'resting" which is how I *always* say it!

I am thinking about this and I am not sure I have ever used the word spurious when speaking so I have only pronounced it in my head while reading.

This stuff is fascinating. Truly. I am a sucker for discussions of dialects and such.

[CJ]

Oh! LM Montgomery! You know what I always wondered about with her was whether I was mispronouncing the name of my own church. I grew up Presbyterian and Miss Cornelia in House of Dreams made such a stink about people saying "Presbytarian. What was the problem there? Were people saying "Presby-tar-ian"? Was it supposed to be pronounced "Presby-tee-rian," and all the "Presby-tare-ian" folks in my church just didn't know it? I never figured it out but I sure did wonder.

[Tracy]

Yes, I rhyme spurious and furious, so either I am pronouncing both wrong or both right. since I'm fairly certain that I don't say furry-us, I might even be right.

but then I'm totally lost in terms of how to pronounce things, ever since I moved down South. I don't say anything right here.

thanks for the explanation - it makes some sense to me.

(I like how you started throwing in y's overseas. I have done some of that in terms of adapting to the Southern accent down here. Though I do not sound Southern by any means. No, Ma'am, now I do not sound as if I belong anywhere!)

[mary]

See, I didn't notice the Presbyterian one because that's how I would pronounce it -- Presby-tear-ian.

Int'resting. I totally dig this stuff.

[el-e-e]

Phonology posts are great. :) Now I do wonder, though, how we really sound to our British friends. (Styupid, most likely.)

[amy]

All right. I've been thinking about this all weekend and now I'm perplexed. American English is all messed up. We have /y/ with pure, but not with purpose, sure, or bury. Or wait. Do we have it with sure? Egad. I've said it aloud 17 times and I can't even tell anymore. Maybe I need another Linguistics class to help settle my mind.

[Maria]

Fascinating! I love this kind of stuff.

[mandamum]

My dh says stYupid, but I always thought he was just being silly...maybe that's because he actually says shtyupid :) but very int-er-esting about that /y/ thing!

--Amanda

[Pigwotknits]

Yes, Americans 'missing out' the y sound does sound odd to British ears. American pronunciation sounds flatter to me, especially in words like 'new' and 'duty'.

[Debs]

I think that moving to Texas from London is certainly going to be an experience! I know that I don't always speak 'proper', with my lovely London accent, so it'll be interesting to see what's said the same and what's different.