I've heard some Americans say things like "yuge" for "huge" etc. What particular region of the states do such pronunciations come from?
yuge
No, it's actually true that there are North American English dialects for which historical /hj/ is pronounced as just [j] rather than the [Cj] that is present in most English dialects for such. I can't think of the particular dialects off the top of my head, though.
Yeah, it's definitely common in the New York dialect. For example, Donald Trump and Larry David both exhibit this pronunciation.
<<rather than the [Cj] that is present in most English dialects for such.>>
I think you may be overgeneralizing. In my speech, at least, it's usually [hj] rather than [Cj].
<<rather than the [Cj] that is present in most English dialects for such.>>
I think you may be overgeneralizing. In my speech, at least, it's usually [hj] rather than [Cj].
Actually I retract what I just wrote - now that I think about it, it seems that [Cj] is the primary realization in my speech.
/hj/ seems to be a case where a very large portion of English-speakers are unaware of their own pronunciation, unlike with things like word-initial stops, whose aspiration is relatively well-known amongst English-speakers.
Likewise it's impossible to pronounce [hl], you have to say [l_0] and it's impossible to pronounce [hr\], you have to say [r\_0].
>> Likewise it's impossible to pronounce [hl], you have to say [l_0] and it's impossible to pronounce [hr\], you have to say [r\_0]. <<
Is it truely impossible, or just difficult?
Is it truely impossible, or just difficult?
Supposedly there are pockets of the South (like Houston) where they drop their h's before /yu/ but in my experience it's pretty much a northeastern thing.
(like Houston)
I've actually read that in Houston they drop the /h/ in place name itself, but keep it for other words like "hue", "huge", "human", "humongous" etc.
I've actually read that in Houston they drop the /h/ in place name itself, but keep it for other words like "hue", "huge", "human", "humongous" etc.
I'm from the South and I always pronounce /h/ before /ju/. It's possible that people from Houston might pronounce the name of their place without a /h/. I associate dropping of /h/ before /ju/ with New York.