It's not really extra letters: I'm using "zh" to represent a single consonant sound (phoneme) that I don't have a good single letter for. If we were in French, it would be "j" and all would be much simpler. :) What I don't get -- and this actually has tripped me up in podficcing before -- is how to wrap my mouth around "Frayzh."
Anyway, I'm not sure how much more of a "because" there is than "different accents pronounce certain words differently in predictable ways," especially with names, which are often pronounced bizarrely for all sorts of historical reasons.
I mean, I think the point in due South is to make a joke about (a certain kind of) American accent vs. (a certain kind of) Canadian accent. But each country has so many regional accents that it's hard to actually joke about it.
For example, if I saw the name "Fraser" written, without due South having called all this to my attention, I would totally say FRAY-zer. If someone said "FRAY-zhure" to me out loud...I'm not sure whether my instinct would be to write "Fraser" (which I don't pronounce that way) or "Frasier" (which I *do* pronounce that way, but is a less common-to-me name. Except for the fact that there was a famous TV show Called "Frasier," which I never saw.)
But, let me think of another example... One could pronounce "azure" as AZ-yure, or as AZH-ure. I've heard both, and maybe the former is more brit and the latter more Yank, but I bet it's not consistent across either country. Possibly also related, my husband and I were quoting the Monty Python line today: "we don't morally censure, we just want the money." The English actor pronounces it CEN-syure, which sounds very British to my ears. I would normally say CEN-shure, and I think that's what most (US) people I know say, too.
(CEN-sure, that is with an s rather than a sh, is how I would pronounce "censor" or "censer," and I think there Brit and Yank more or less agree? It's also how I usually pronounce "sensor," though I think I can be influenced into saying that SEN-sor, and maybe the same for "censor" if it's a noun rather than a verb.)
This is reminding me of the one linguistics class I took in college (or, shall we say, "at University" :) ). The teaching assistant in charge of my recitation section was Australian, with a pretty strong accent; the students were all or mostly Americans. One day, he was going over a list of consonant sounds, and he got to "zh." The example given for this was "garage," -- which I and many, but not all, Americans pronounce gah-RAHZH. We're all nodding along, but the teaching assistant says, "I don't understand why they give this as an example, but that's what the book says" -- because, of course, *he* pronounces it gah-RADGE. (Not, as far as I remember, GA-ridge, which I've heard some Englishpeople say. I'm pretty sure the emphasis was on the second syllable.)
The funny thing was, it took us several back-and-forths to figure out/explain what was going on, because for some people, including the TA, both pronunciations were recognizable as the word "garage," to the extent that they had a hard time hearing the difference in pronunciation.
And come to think of it, I totally say gah-RAZH, so why is FRAYZH to hard for me to spit out? They're nearly identical! Weird...
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timeasmymeasure
Way more rambling about language than anyone asked for :)
Date: 2016-06-06 11:56 pm (UTC)Anyway, I'm not sure how much more of a "because" there is than "different accents pronounce certain words differently in predictable ways," especially with names, which are often pronounced bizarrely for all sorts of historical reasons.
I mean, I think the point in due South is to make a joke about (a certain kind of) American accent vs. (a certain kind of) Canadian accent. But each country has so many regional accents that it's hard to actually joke about it.
For example, if I saw the name "Fraser" written, without due South having called all this to my attention, I would totally say FRAY-zer. If someone said "FRAY-zhure" to me out loud...I'm not sure whether my instinct would be to write "Fraser" (which I don't pronounce that way) or "Frasier" (which I *do* pronounce that way, but is a less common-to-me name. Except for the fact that there was a famous TV show Called "Frasier," which I never saw.)
But, let me think of another example... One could pronounce "azure" as AZ-yure, or as AZH-ure. I've heard both, and maybe the former is more brit and the latter more Yank, but I bet it's not consistent across either country. Possibly also related, my husband and I were quoting the Monty Python line today: "we don't morally censure, we just want the money." The English actor pronounces it CEN-syure, which sounds very British to my ears. I would normally say CEN-shure, and I think that's what most (US) people I know say, too.
(CEN-sure, that is with an s rather than a sh, is how I would pronounce "censor" or "censer," and I think there Brit and Yank more or less agree? It's also how I usually pronounce "sensor," though I think I can be influenced into saying that SEN-sor, and maybe the same for "censor" if it's a noun rather than a verb.)
This is reminding me of the one linguistics class I took in college (or, shall we say, "at University" :) ). The teaching assistant in charge of my recitation section was Australian, with a pretty strong accent; the students were all or mostly Americans. One day, he was going over a list of consonant sounds, and he got to "zh." The example given for this was "garage," -- which I and many, but not all, Americans pronounce gah-RAHZH. We're all nodding along, but the teaching assistant says, "I don't understand why they give this as an example, but that's what the book says" -- because, of course, *he* pronounces it gah-RADGE. (Not, as far as I remember, GA-ridge, which I've heard some Englishpeople say. I'm pretty sure the emphasis was on the second syllable.)
The funny thing was, it took us several back-and-forths to figure out/explain what was going on, because for some people, including the TA, both pronunciations were recognizable as the word "garage," to the extent that they had a hard time hearing the difference in pronunciation.
And come to think of it, I totally say gah-RAZH, so why is FRAYZH to hard for me to spit out? They're nearly identical! Weird...