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#144638 06/30/2005 4:30 AM
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Can I ask those from N. America how they would pronounce the word 'deaths'? My colleague from the US (Nebraska and California I believe) had occasion to use this word several times this morning, and his pronunciation was (approximately given the limitations of this system) /dez/, while I would pronounce it /deths/, where th = voiceless dental fricative.

Bingley


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#144639 06/30/2005 10:14 AM
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Were you hearing your colleague face to face or was it over some (possibly low fidelity) electronic medium as a telephone?

I would pronounce it with an unvoiced dental fricative and an unvoiced sibilant. If pronounced with a voiced dental fricative and a voiced sibilant the voiced fricative could easily get lost in the sibilant in low fidelity reproduction.


#144640 06/30/2005 10:50 AM
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if my dentals aren't fricasseed, I think I'm with you.



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#144641 06/30/2005 11:19 AM
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I've always preferred chicken fricassee, with consonant clusters for dessert.


#144642 06/30/2005 1:32 PM
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I say "deths", not "dez".


#144643 06/30/2005 2:06 PM
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Oh, yeah. Like Sparteye, I say /deths/. When I have to.


#144644 06/30/2005 2:10 PM
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We say "they all be daid". Note 'daid' properly has at least two syllables (as does 'two')...

'deths' for me


#144645 06/30/2005 2:23 PM
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It was a face to face encounter. I shall have to work other -ths words into the conversation to see what he does with them. Do we have any members from Nebraska or thereabouts? (I must confess to being a trifle vague as to where exactly it is.)

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#144646 06/30/2005 2:25 PM
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Nebraska is in the center of the US, in what we call the Great Plains. I lived a lot of my life out in those parts, and I have always said deths. but then, I'm edumacated...



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#144647 06/30/2005 2:33 PM
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Well, yes, I knew it was in the middle somewhere. But that's an awful lot of somewhere.

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#144648 06/30/2005 2:40 PM
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http://maps.google.com/maps?q=nebraska

right there, left-of-center-loike... <smile>



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#144649 06/30/2005 2:43 PM
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Yor hi faluntin' edumacation, hrumph! I'm much eruditer...

I have been trying to think of ths's that I would pronounce in the opposite way (so obtusely described by master Faldage...), so far no luck.


#144650 06/30/2005 2:53 PM
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tickle yourself with a feather?



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#144651 06/30/2005 3:23 PM
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long or short, one syllable or two?


#144652 06/30/2005 3:45 PM
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long or short, one syllable or two?

Vayg? vay-gyu? vag? vag-you? vahg? vah-gway?


#144653 06/30/2005 4:36 PM
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We say "they all be daid".

Is that how it goes on the certificate?


#144654 06/30/2005 9:30 PM
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so obtusely described

That was precise terminology.


#144655 06/30/2005 11:43 PM
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In reply to:

tickle yourself with a feather?


Particularly nice weather!

nice one Rog!


#144656 06/30/2005 11:46 PM
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then that's that, I guess...

heh


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#144657 06/30/2005 11:47 PM
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In reply to:

so obtusely described

That was precise terminology.


yeah, should have said abstrusely.

reconditely,
-ron o.


#144658 06/30/2005 11:50 PM
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at least not chartreusely...



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#144659 07/01/2005 9:38 AM
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vayg.

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#144660 07/01/2005 10:07 AM
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Me too ...


#144661 07/01/2005 11:13 AM
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Dunno about that, ask me sometime later...


#144662 07/01/2005 5:21 PM
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Last night, my son and I went to see George Romero's "Land of the Dead" -- the latest zombie flic. My sweet bride had the prescience to stay at home and watch tennis on the telly. The only sound made by the (literally) hundreds of zombies who were dispatched in this epic film was "gurgle, gurgle, gurgle."



#144663 07/05/2005 4:43 AM
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Well, zombies are not generally known for their conversational skills, are they? I haven't seen that many, but don't they usually just lurch around without saying anything?

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#144664 07/05/2005 4:52 AM
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In that this was George Romero's fourth zombie movie, and in that he has evolved as a film-maker, it is perhaps unsurprising that the zombies evolved a bit, as well. There was some degree of communication between them, in this film, where there was none in any of the three prior "epics".


#144665 07/05/2005 5:22 AM
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In reply to:

In that this was George Romero's fourth zombie movie, and in that he has evolved as a film-maker,


But not, perhaps, very far?

In reply to:

it is perhaps unsurprising that the zombies evolved a bit, as well.


I would be interested to hear from the biologists amongst us how zombie evolution would work.
Bingley



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#144666 07/05/2005 9:51 AM
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hear from the biologists amongst us how zombie evolution would work.

It's a Bildunsfilmserie. Of course they're going to evolve. Biology's got nothing to do with it.


#144667 07/05/2005 12:31 PM
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I have been trying to think of ths's that I would pronounce in the opposite way (so obtusely described by master Faldage...), so far no luck.
I would pronounce "deaths" as so ably described by Faldage (although I wouldn't have been nearly so erudite in describing it!) but I would pronounce "moths" with a voiced "th"


#144668 07/05/2005 12:40 PM
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> but I would pronounce "moths" with a voiced "th"

yeth, me, too.



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