thaichicken (thaichicken) wrote in linguaphiles,
thaichicken
thaichicken
linguaphiles
  • Location: Boston
  • Mood: curious

to ___ is human

Hello all,

A professor of mine today tripped over the word "err". She said she'd pronounced it like "air" all her life (sorry, I really can't do IPA yet), or like the first syllable of "error" but recently had been told it should be "er" or "ur" like warm-er or Sat-ur-day.

Is this a dialect thing? Growing up in Ohio / midwestern US I always heard "air" but now I live in Massachusetts. As always, do those of you from other English-speaking countries have thoughts on the matter?

Thanks!
Tags: american english, dialects, english, english dialects
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  • UDDER and WATER

    To the memory of Vladislav Illich-Svitych. This is just to bring attention to something very ‘Nostratic’ (far beyond ‘Indo-European’ languages —…

  • EUROPA, etymology

    "... Agenor, king of the Phoenician city of Sidon, had a beautiful daughter Europa, literally (in Greek) the "wide-eyed". In fact, of course, not…

  • Word 'Climax'. A note for aspiring etymologists.

    The English word climax has two seemingly incompatible meanings of "climax" and "orgasm". Yet, we should not forget that the word has not only a…