I just got an email from one of the net neutrality lobbying things I'm subscribed to titled "In your face, Comcast" saying that the FCC has firmed up its commitment to classify internet access under Title II.
And just then, there was an explosion of celebratory sounds coming from different directions. People driving around honking their horns and yelling "YEAH! WOO HOO!"
I mean, it's probably some sort of high school sports thing or something, but I'm still going to get in the car and drive around honking and high-fiving people yelling "WOO! TOM WHEELER! F! C! C!" like I think that's what everyone is so happy about.
No, I'm not. I'm going to tell you guys I did, though, which is basically the same thing.
There's an English guy at my work and he talks all Englishy and when he says "metadata" he pronounces it like "metadaughter". Hmmmm... Is that the daughter of your daughter?
But I was unaware that there are actually three distinct pronunciations of data. The first vowel of data can be the vowel of trap, the vowel of face, or the vowel of father (or bath for many of you Brits).
I was aware of the first two, as they are the US variations, but I was unaware of the latter which I have not heard in the US.
Which yeah, to someone who has the cot-caught merger would sound like daughter (since the vowels of lot and father are merged in pretty much all American accents).
I'm not as amused by the "da", whether it's day or daa or dah, as I am by the "ta" and how he pronounces it ter . There's no fucking R! Where does that shit come from? And how come you all leave it off when it's really there? Like in daughter? (doo-tah)
Lots of Brits put an extra 'r' between two vowel sounds. I think it's part of Received Pronunciation, and probably various dialects as well. Possibly also if the vowel is the last thing they say, although I'm not sure about that part. So you could see if you can get him to say a phrase/compound with a consonant immediately after "data," like "database," and see if the 'r' disappears.
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"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Lots of Brits put an extra 'r' between two vowel sounds. I think it's part of Received Pronunciation, and probably various dialects as well.
RP "should" not have intrusive /r/. It "should" have linking /r/, however.
Linking /r/ is when a historical/underlying* /r/ is pronounced when followed by a vowel. This is similar to French liaison, where many final consonants are pronounced before vowels.
e.g. daughter and son, not daughtuh and son
Intrusive /r/ is when an /r/ is added between two vowels when it is not historical/underlying**
e.g. "I sawr a film today, oh boy" rather than "I saw a film today"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign Steve
I'm not as amused by the "da", whether it's day or daa or dah, as I am by the "ta" and how he pronounces it ter . There's no fucking R! Where does that shit come from? And how come you all leave it off when it's really there? Like in daughter? (doo-tah)
Anyway, intrusive /r/ is an outgrowth of linking /r/. They were still pronouncing /r/s of words like "car" and "daughter" in certain circumstances, but normally would not pronounce them. It's easy to reanalyze this pattern as simply placing an /r/ after certain vowels if they would be followed by another vowel. Basically, it's a lack of distinction between words like daughter and data, while whether they say an /r/ or not has to do with the following word rather than whether an /r/ is written. If you pay attention, he's probably not saying an /r/ when it's either the end of an utterance or followed by a consonant.
*Historical is easy enough and generally is reflected in the spelling. Underlying is a phonological term meaning that it is stored in the brain's lexicon with certain phonemes even if they are not always pronounced. For example, in American English, /t/s are often flapped and indistinguishable from /d/s - but they are generally considered underlyingly to be /t/ because the same morpheme is pronounced with a clear /t/ in other contexts, e.g. biting has the flap, but bite always has /t/. Similarly, if asked to clarify between, say, latter and ladder, an American flapper would likely enunciate the /t/.
**Arguably people who follow this pattern don't have an underlying /r/ in data OR daughter - they simply pronounce /r/ between two words if there would otherwise be certain vowels next to each other. Without the spelling to mark the difference, the /r/ of data and the /r/ of daughter is often indistinguishable for such speakers (that is, there may not be a way, from their speech alone, to tell which word "really" has an /r/...). Some speakers go so far as to insert /r/ into words, getting words like "drawring" instead of "drawing". For those speakers, it is really, really hard to say there's a distinction between linking and intrusive /r/. For many speakers, though, words like "oaring" and "awing" would be distinct, even if you can't distinguish "oar" vs. "awe".
I went to the Asian market today, and the local Republicans were outside doing some sort of "We're not Racists" outreach thing, handing out little cards that say that they value diversity and that "the only tent big enough for everyone is FREEDOM," and things like that.
So anyways, on the way out, I see one of the Republican ladies looking extremely uncomfortable, and I couldn't hear everything the other lady was saying to her, except for "Thurr takin' r guns, thurr takin' r guns!"
(For some reason, I always sort of thought he looked like a dopey old asshole, see, so accidentally seeing a current picture of him was an amusing surprise.)
I think that is the perfect pop song. I've never met anyone who doesn't like it.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I received notice in the mail this weekend that I was eligible to participate in a class action lawsuit against Walgreens (having had a prescription filled there). My expected "boon" for joining? ~$15.
The reason for the class action suit? Walgreens had the temerity to call their customers cell phone with pre-recorded prescription refill notices.
That's right Walgreens was ballsy enough to remind it's customers to refill prescriptions before the prescriptions ran out. How dare they.
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The best way to make America great is to lower the standards!
My mom and sister bought me absolutely beautiful morels at a farmer's market in Northern Michigan. Then gave them to me in a Taco Bell container from Nachos Bell Grande. The sublime packaged in the truly mundane.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
For example, in American English, /t/s are often flapped and indistinguishable from /d/s - but they are generally considered underlyingly to be /t/ because the same morpheme is pronounced with a clear /t/ in other contexts, e.g. biting has the flap, but bite always has /t/. Similarly, if asked to clarify between, say, latter and ladder, an American flapper would likely enunciate the /t/.
That always sounds ... wrong ... to me, somehow. Consequently, over the years I've trained myself to always [hopefully, anyway] pronounce the letter 't' as 't', and not 'd'. So, for instance, I say 'battle', not something that sounds kind of like 'baddle'.
Some people apparently find it unusual. Amusingly, I'm sometimes asked if I'm British.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”