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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
would say, approximately, ‘skonn’, not ‘skunn’ and not 'skawn'.
I can hear ‘skunn’ and 'skawn' in my mind's ear. I have no idea what ‘skonn’ is supposed to sound like. I am willing to entertain the notion that my mind's ear and dxb's mind's ear are not hearing 'skawn' the same way.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Skonn, to me, has 'sco' as in Scot and a sharp 'n' on the end formed with the tip of the tongue curled up to touch the roof of the mouth rather than just behind the front upper teeth. Skawn has the lips pushed forward to make the 'aw' sound as in prawn or born.
Describing on paper what you can hear perfectly well in your head is never easy and I am aware that there are conventions for doing so with wierd upside down 'e's and omegas, but I am really not familiar or comfortable with them. I should be - apologies. I should stay away from such issues!
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
- and 'ere's the pronunciation:
"Skawn" to rhyme with "dawn"
"Skonn" to rhyme with "upon"
As to "scunner"; in some Eng. dialects, this word means "to skin", as in to remove the skin from an animal (after you've killed it, of course !)
A metaphorical usage is, "Yon stink's enough to scunner a toad!" - i.e, the stench is powerful enough to remove a toad's skin. I just can't remember in which part of England I heard this: I think it was North Midlands - Nottingham/ Derbyshire/ Staffordshire sort of area.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
the 'aw' sound as in ... born.Case in point.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
OK! OK! I promise I'll stay away from issues of pronunciation. No pun intended. (Born - issues...oh well.)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
What a shame the pronunciation symbols are such a disaster - so many of them I remember one I had in highschool French that was marvelously helpful. Now every dictionary is different and Babel results.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
pronunciation symbols are such a disaster
Part of the problem is that of agreeing what they mean. This as in prawn or born, as the lovely AnnaS so ably pointed out, makes no sense to someone for whom the vowel sounds in the two words are completely different. We need a site with sound files.
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