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As they are for me, an
American. The takehome message is that unaccented vowels are pronounced highly idiosyncratically and inconsistently, those in "define" and "velocity" included. Trying to generalize is pointless, and dictionaries offer no useful guidance as they generally ignore vowel reduction
616:
Dictionaries aren't going to be of much help here, because the pronunication of the first vowel in these words is highly idiosyncratic and inconsistent. It depends on the speaker, and whether they reduce the unaccented vowels. I gernerally reduce all four vowels, and pronounce them like the "i" in
516:
My language background is
American English and these all sound quite different to me, although I must admit I have familiarity with Mandarin (which has ɤ) and Korean and Uyghur (which have ɯ). Here's a recording of the four of them (in the order ). It's hard for me to say them without contexts,
635:
Yeah, but for a generic question like this one, a generic answer can be found in a dictionary. Or, 72.152, did you want to know whether that one specific speaker in that one specific video pronounces it that way? In that case, we'd need a sample of the speaker's saying
885:
for a quick synopsis of the different schwas. So, if some people here an "e" sound and others hear an "i" sound when the speak those words themselves (or even, when the hear others speak them), it says a lot about a person's own dialect/idiolect.
250:
The reason babies do anything is because it feels good. It no doubt helps to develop their coordination, but of course babies didn't bounce at all before they had something to bounce on. Last time I dropped one it didn't bounce at
197:"Survival or destruction", I think. There is no indication other than the context whether the voice is active or passive. This is the traditional translation in Chinese, and is very much contextual from the play. --
617:"it". Other speakers may or may not reduce any or all of these vowels, and pronounce them differently, whether reduced or not reduced. Even the same speaker may not be consistent at all times.
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Is it true that boys bounce more than girls and that this is more commonly seen in
English speaking countries? Is this an anecdotal observation or something you've read or seen somewhere?--
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I understand that it's just a phrase, and the wording itself was the only reason I asked; if I'd seriously been asking about infantile behavior, I would have gone to the science desk :-)
881:
in many
English dialects. Schwas come in different 'colorations', so there are i-colored schwas, and u-colored schwas, and both of these schwas can also contain r-coloration as well. See
55:
684:
The first vowel in "velocity" is /ə/, the first vowel in "define" is /ɪ/. For "before" and "beget", some dictionaries only give pronunciations with /ɪ/, some give both versions, e.g.,
51:
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Why do newborn human male infants in
English-speaking countries frequently engage in bouncing? And why is this behavior less commonly observed among comparable females?
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You don't have to, but if you could put a video or audio link for "vi-locity", then I would eagerly listen to it. (By the way, I live in southeastern United States.) --
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To pronounce , just pronounce , hold it, and then (while still making the sound) un-round your lips. It might be easier to feel the difference than to hear it!
85:
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
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Why do /ɯ/ and /ɤ/ sound so similar to /u/ and /o/, even though other unrounded/rounded pairs, like /i y/ and /ɛ œ/, are easy to tell apart? --
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It's all in the technique. With the right coordination, you can make one skip thrice before sinking. This usually results in them becoming
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I don't think 毁灭 is being used transitively, though; I understood it as being something more like passive ("to be destroyed") or
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Yes, just too variable. Velocity is the odd one out for me here in northern
England, but I regularly hear it with an /ɪ/.
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pronunication of the first vowel in these words (e.g. "before", "beget", "because") is highly idiosyncratic and inconsistent
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altogether, for the simple reason that it is highly idiosyncratic and inconsistent. See this article for more information:
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Does the 1st vowel in "before" & "beget" sound like the 1st vowel in "define" or the 1st vowel in "velocity"?
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and noticed that I definitely hear /ə/ as the 1st vowel sound which is nothing like the 1st vowel in "define"--
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I think that the literal translation back into
English would be something like "To survive or to destroy".
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That may be true for
Americans, but for me and many (? most) British people, all four are /ɪ/. --
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phrase, and is not founded on any double-blind studies with statistical analysis of variance...
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My native language is Polish. In your recording, the first two vowels sound the same to me. —
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Use that "thumbs-up" thingy while you can, as they are looking to delete it on
Commons, as a
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Those pairs don't sound similar at all to me. What's your language background?
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The first vowel in "velocity" is /ə/, the first vowel in "define" is /ɪ/.
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Nyttend -- I think that "Bouncing baby boy" is just an old semi-jocular
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173:(above I offered "to go out", like a light)--not "to destroy ".
586:, I think it sounds like "velocity". I need a verification.--
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says "before" like "velocity"--if I am hearing correctly.--
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The above 2 lines are my conclusions from your replies. --
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The
Chinese Knowledge translates "to be or not to be" as
79:
Welcome to the Knowledge Language Reference Desk Archives
112:. Could anybody translate 生存还是毁灭 back into English -
362:This question clearly needs a cite for its claim.
851:, but the Monty Python video was simply a /ə/.--
877:All of the examples here have a first syllable
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847:By the way, I also know about
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104:Chinese: "To be or not to be".
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605:first and look up the IPA.
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883:Vowel reduction in English
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831:0:11 minute of the video
650:Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556
607:Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556
18:Knowledge:Reference desk
576:"before" & "beget"
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253:Shantavira
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67:February 6
46:February 4
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50:<<
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26:Language
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110:生存还是毁灭
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