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OP I was speaking to someone a few days ago. I was referring to someone else (a male) and realized something in my speaking. I was amazed that I had never noticed this in my speech before. Now it is bugging me and I try to listen for it in others' speech, but I never am listening for it at the right time.
What I was saying was something like "I gave it to him". But I realized that what I actually said was more like "I gave it to'eem". I had never noticed that I changed the pronunciation of the word "him" to "eem" in some cases. I quickly realized that I was dropping the "h" (of course), and saying the sound "eem" to differentiate that word from the "oo" sound in the word "to".
It has bothered me since, although I know it shouldn't. It must be pretty common, since no one else has ever drawn my attention to it. I just wonder how many other examples there are like that. The obvious proper one is using the "schwa" sound when saying the word "a" before a word beginning with a consonant sound, and using "an" before a word beginning with a vowel sound (but not necessarily a vowel, of course).
(Incidentally, I am from southeastern USA.)
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted him vs. 'eem ProfessorPook 05/02/01 01:12 AM Re: him vs. 'eem Jackie 05/02/01 01:46 AM Re: him vs. 'eem NicholasW 05/02/01 08:07 AM Re: him vs. 'eem Jackie 05/02/01 11:17 AM Re: him vs. 'eem Bean 05/03/01 01:10 PM Re: him vs. 'eem wow 05/03/01 03:57 PM Re: him vs. 'eem nancyk 05/03/01 10:12 PM Re: him vs. 'eem Capital Kiwi 05/04/01 06:50 AM Re: ruin NicholasW 05/04/01 11:35 AM Re: ruin nancyk 05/04/01 08:46 PM Re: ruin NicholasW 05/08/01 07:50 AM Re: ruin nancyk 05/08/01 07:26 PM Re: ruin Bobyoungbalt 05/07/01 06:36 PM Re: him vs. 'eem Rapunzel 05/04/01 02:49 PM Re: him vs. 'eem nancyk 05/04/01 08:36 PM Re: him vs. 'eem Eubie Kwyatt 05/05/01 09:14 PM
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