pronunciation of 'against' in RP
jen
as in FACE? I would appreciate the opinion of RP speakers or people
familiar with the RP accent please.
dcw
Both are common, and both are given in the couple of dictionaries I
checked. I use the FACE vowel, and to me the DRESS vowel sounds a
bit old fashioned. I vaguely remember a hymn that rhymes "again"
with "amen".
The same thing happens with "ain't" (when RP speakers can bring
themselves to say it). One of Tolkien's Ents makes a pun about
it.
David
Mike Lyle
> Is the second vowel of 'against' in RP the same vowel as in DRESS or
> as in FACE? I would appreciate the opinion of RP speakers or people
> familiar with the RP accent please.
Dictionaries are very helpful with this kind of problem. There are
several to choose from, but my present desktop favourite is Collins
21st-Century at about twenty-five quid; though for spelling and
pronunciation almost any little cheap one will do very well. If
English isn't your first language, consider the Oxford Advanced
Learner's Dictionary or the Oxford Student's Dictionary.
Mike.
jen
> as in FACE? I would appreciate the opinion of RP speakers or people
> familiar with the RP accent please.
>
what RP speakers' intuition would tell them without their looking it
up. I'm English but not an RP speaker and the few people I've asked
who have my accent seem to feel that the DRESS vowel is the one they
use but the 'correct' (note scare quotes) vowel is FACE.
Jonathan Jordan
"dcw" <D.C....@ukc.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:82...@myrtle.ukc.ac.uk...
> In article <apn3s4$ge0$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk>,
> jen <j...@MUNGED.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> >Is the second vowel of 'against' in RP the same vowel as in DRESS
or
> >as in FACE? I would appreciate the opinion of RP speakers or
people
> >familiar with the RP accent please.
>
> Both are common, and both are given in the couple of dictionaries I
> checked. I use the FACE vowel, and to me the DRESS vowel sounds a
> bit old fashioned. I vaguely remember a hymn that rhymes "again"
> with "amen".
That (well, the "old fashioned" bit) surprises me. I pronounce both
"again" and "against" with /E/ ("dress"), and I thought that was the
usual pronunciation. (Mild Sheffield accent, age 25)
>
> The same thing happens with "ain't" (when RP speakers can bring
> themselves to say it). One of Tolkien's Ents makes a pun about
> it.
>
I don't normally use "ain't", but I wouldn't pronounce it like "ent"
if I did.
Jonathan
holger freese
"jen" <j...@MUNGED.freeserve.co.uk> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:apol6r$27l$1...@news7.svr.pol.co.uk...
I don't know what their intuition tells them, and I'm not a native speaker
myself, but I do know that according to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
by J.C. Wells (BrE poll panel preference) 80% of native speakers of BrE
say -gen(st) and 20% -gein(st) when they pronounce again(st).
Greetings,
Ho
Joe Fineman
The OED gives both pronunciations, with the "dress"-vowel one first,
but no usage comment or information on the distribution. So also with
the closely related word "again". For the latter at least, the battle
seems to have been going on for quite a while; the song "The Bold
Soldier" (which I incline to guess is 18th-century) has some fun with
it:
Then he took her to the church, and of course, home again.
There he met her father and seven armèd men.
"Let us fly", said the maiden. "I fear we shall be slain."
"Hold my horse", said the soldier. "Never fear again."
Fa-la-la-la, etc.
--
--- Joe Fineman j...@TheWorld.com
||: Yanks think 200 years is a long time, and Brits think 200 :||
||: miles is a long way. :||