I've never been told I had a notable accent, rather I've done lots of acting and public speaking, in many places in New York and Massachusetts.
Virtually every native American-English speaker I know exhibits this pronunciation pattern, with the only possible exception being those with "southern" accents. However, I've noticed that the trend is also exhibited in black american english.
If you say "writer" and "rider" identically, I'd be interested to know someone who breaks this trend!
On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 10:57, Luke Bergen
<lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
I think you might also be right Ivo. I pronounce "pipe" as a one syllable word. If I slow my pronunciation way way down it does come out like p....y....i....p but maybe I'm just shortening the length of the vowel.
The paper had a good way of illustrating this phenomenon. In "writer" and "rider" the "t" and "d" are reduced to a flap (I think it was a flap) and so the two words are indistinguishable except that since the "i" of "rider" is followed by a voiced consonant it exhibits the "canadian raising" effect. I don't know how to describe that change in sound. What I do know is that the "i" in "writer" and "rider" sounds different to me... at least when I say it anyway.
On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 10:47 AM, Ivo Doko
<ivo.doko@gmail.com> wrote:
On 23 January 2011 18:04, Luke Bergen
<lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
I see what you mean now timos about how it's bad idea to talk about pronunciations in terms of english words. Just because I pronounce pie and pipe like {pai} and {pyip} does not mean that all americans do the same. In fact, according to the abstract in the paper that Oren found, I may very well be in the minority.
You are the first person I've ever heard of who pronounces "pipe" like [ˈpəip]. If you really do pronounce it like you say you do then what you're saying is a two-syllable word, so are you sure that what you're saying is not actually [ˈpəjp] or [ˈpəːjp]? Nevertheless, a schwa in the pronunciation of "pipe" is extremely unusual, more so because in English schwa is never stressed, and the syllable in "pipe" is a stressed syllable. The usual pronunciation of the word is [ˈpajp] or [ˈpaːjp].
Well, I'm off to learn IPA
A good idea.
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Oren Robinson
(315) 569-2888
102 Morrison Ave
Somerville, MA 02144