Either,neither pronunciation.

Could you pls tell me how to know what pronunciation to use?

I understand that people pronounce one way or another, I mean who says (neether) and who does (nither). Which one should I use If I pretend to speak standard English?

I have no preference. I use both so I hope that helps you to decide. LOL ;-)

In the US both are said, but I hear more people say eether/neether. That's how I learned to say them, but at some point I started using both pronunciations, depending on my mood, I suppose. For some reason, I can't bring myself to say "eether" and "neether" in the "either/or" and "neither/nor" patterns.

I'm an American and use [i:] exclusively for both "either" and "neither", but [ai] is a somewhat common, (altho much less used) variant here in California, at least for some speakers in some situations (some use [ai] exclusively, some use [i:] and [ai] interchangeably in those words). At least to my ears as far as hearing another Californian speaker, exclusive use of [ai] sounds pretentious, [i:] sounding more natural, but that's just my opinion :)

P.S. just in case you were wondering, I checked up on the historical pronunciation of the word. in 17th century England, it was apparently pronounced [ei] for both words, with the occasional variant of [e]. By the 1800s, both [i:] and [ai] were common in England, but eventually [ai] won out in at least in Southern England English, with the United States overwhelmingly preferring [i:]. I think it would be safe to say the majority of American speakers still prefer [i:].

Pretty interesting to hear that it is just a matter of preference.
I thoght there was more to it. ok then, (i:) for me from now on.

I am a native British speaker and I find many people use both interchangeably, but [ai] is used more by the middle classes. The [ai] pronunciation seems slightly more 'intellectual'.

I didn't know Americans didn't use both -- it probably means we'll drop the [ai] pronunciation in the end too.

by the way, Standard English refers only to the words/grammar, 'Received Pronunciation' is the associated prestige accent.

I think you wrote it wrong "The [ai] pronunciation seems slightly more 'intellectual'.

Now that you mention it, does this apply to direct,mobile, and the work.

"Direct" using [ai] sounds stiff and pretentious to me (at least hearing another American say it...it would seem more natural for someone from England to say). I say [d..rekt]. "Mobile" using [ai] is somewhat more common than [dairekt] is here, but [mOub.l] is the more common American pronunciation. Most of the "-ile' (mobile, fragile, missile, etc) words were historically pronounced [il] and later [.l] in Britain, as was the case when America was colonized. While British English now prefers [ail], the earlier prononciation [.l] is still preserved in many American words.

I say "ither" and "nither", but I have caught myself saying "eether" and "neether" when talking to people who use these forms. Sociolinguistic convergence at its best, I'd say...

Both the "ither" and "nither" and "eether" and "neether" pronunciations occur in American English and I've read that the same dichotomy exists in British English too it's just that I haven't heard enough Britishers speak in my lifetime to tell as I have with American speakers.

In Australia too it's either.

I use both pronunciations of "either" and "neither" interchangeably. I wouldn't focus on it too much. As a child, I used to say it as a rhyme: "eether/Ither neether/nIther!"

I use both pronunciations interchangeably as well. In some pronunciations one predominates over the other, but in GAE they seem to be equally distributed, even for an individual speaker.

I pronounce these words both ways with no hard and fast rules for doing so. It may be a subconscious mood thing. Generally there was a US/UK divide in this at one time...with "eether" (US) and "eye-ther" (UK) but now with globalisation people can use either (as I type this I silently pronounced it "eye-ther" so I am obviously in a Britmood this morning.

Quoting Cole Porter:

You say "eether" and I say "eye-ther"
You say "neether" and I say "n-eye-ther" etc etc.....I guess people called the whole thing off a long time ago as far as these particular words are concerned.

I would just mention this...the "tomato" and "potato" issue. Very few, if any, people in the UK say "tom-ay-to"! The only people I personally have heard pronounce it that way were Americans. Strangely, Cole Prter got it wrong with "potato"....nobody, but nobody, in the UK says "pot-ah-to"! That sounds bizarre.

There are still firm differences in this trans-Atlantic word pronunciation thing though......one example: "mobile"...definitely NOT ['m-Ou-b-l] this side of the Pond. I use my ['m-Ou-b-ai-l] phone constantly. Not many people say "cellphone".

=> Very few, if any, people in the UK say "tom-ay-to"! The only people I personally have heard pronounce it that way were Americans. <=

I met an Australian who'd been living in the US for several years, and he said "tom-ay-to." I questioned him about this and he said he thought since everyone here said it that way, he should, too. I asked him whether he also said "banana" the American way, rather than "ba-nah-na." He replied, making a face, "God, no!"