It seems that some Americans pronounce these words as noo, toosday, toob, nooclear etc. How widespread is this prounciation? Also, does this apply to words like few, view etc. I don't think ever heard those pronounced as foo or voo.
American pronunciation of "new, tuesday, tube etc"
I found my answer here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_consonant_cluster_reductions#Yod-dropping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_consonant_cluster_reductions#Yod-dropping
It seems that most Britons pronounce these words as ñoo*, chooseday
instead of nyoo, tyoosday
How widespread is this pronunciation?
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ñ as in Spanish niño or Italian gn in gnocchi
instead of nyoo, tyoosday
How widespread is this pronunciation?
---
ñ as in Spanish niño or Italian gn in gnocchi
Most Americans say noo, toob, Toosday, nooclear, toolip, etc. You will occasionally hear Americans who don't, but it's no longer common to retain that Y-sound in those words. I think Southerners still do it extensively, but not generic speakers. In old movies you will still hear it, but I think it has fallen out of favor with modern speakers.
However, Americans (and all other English-speakers, to my knowledge) DO retain the y-sound in view, few, cue and queue. Dew is kind of variable; I myself say doo but others say dyoo.
However, Americans (and all other English-speakers, to my knowledge) DO retain the y-sound in view, few, cue and queue. Dew is kind of variable; I myself say doo but others say dyoo.
I use the /u/ sound as opposed to /ju/ in the above cases (except for view, etc.).
Due to u-fronting, a foreign ear may hear [ju] in Californian/Californian pronunciations of ''dude, new, Vancouver'' and so on...
Yes, the Wikipedia article explains it pretty well. For almost all American English speakers, there is yod dropping after stressed alveolar consonants, as in "new", "Tuesday", "tube". In unstressed positions, there is yod coalescence ( [tj]<[tS], [dj]<[dZ] ) after plosives ("situation", "graduation") and yod retention after [n] (annual). Elsewhere, yods are retained pretty much as in RP ("few", "hue", etc.).
A more RP-style yod retention is found sporadically among some Americans (I think I've heard Conan O'Brien pronounce "new" as [nju], for example), and among some Southerners who pronounce the historical /ju/ as a diphthong [IU]. General yod dropping (pronouncing "few" as /fu/, for example) is found among speakers from East Anglia.
A more RP-style yod retention is found sporadically among some Americans (I think I've heard Conan O'Brien pronounce "new" as [nju], for example), and among some Southerners who pronounce the historical /ju/ as a diphthong [IU]. General yod dropping (pronouncing "few" as /fu/, for example) is found among speakers from East Anglia.
Why is this one of the features of American English that non-Americans find the most cringe-worthy? What's so cringe-worthy about it?
One important note, though, is very many NAE dialects, if not most NAE dialects, have palatalization of coronals before /u(ː)/, /ʊ/, /w/, /ər/ and sometimes /o(ʊ̯)/, and when stressed palatalized /t/ and /d/ may be affricated to some extent. Hence many such individuals will have palatalization in many places where yods once were, as if something like like the yod-coalescence that you see in more progressive English English dialects has occurred. The big difference though is that this applies to all such cases, and not just those where yods had once been.
Also, for NAE dialects that actually preserve non-low back vowels as back vowels, there is likely to be a bit of diphthongization of non-low back vowels as rising center-to-back diphthongs after coronals. When markedly stressed, /u/ in the dialect here at least may be diphthongized further into the rising front-to-back diphthong [y̯̆ŭ]/[y̯u]. Combined with the aforementioned palatalization this is likely to give the impression that there is a degree of yod preservation, except that, again, such does not occur just where yods had once been present.
Also, for NAE dialects that actually preserve non-low back vowels as back vowels, there is likely to be a bit of diphthongization of non-low back vowels as rising center-to-back diphthongs after coronals. When markedly stressed, /u/ in the dialect here at least may be diphthongized further into the rising front-to-back diphthong [y̯̆ŭ]/[y̯u]. Combined with the aforementioned palatalization this is likely to give the impression that there is a degree of yod preservation, except that, again, such does not occur just where yods had once been present.
<<Why is this one of the features of American English that non-Americans find the most cringe-worthy? What's so cringe-worthy about it?>>
I don't know, but I would imagine it's because it is something that really "marks" us as different. It probably screams "American". And while we don't notice it much, they might perceive it as really standing out from what they expect to hear, and thus annoying. Losing the y-sound really changes the vowel quite a bit, too, so it's sort of a double whammy: no Y, and an open OO versus a tight EW.
Maybe it comes off as declasse. ;P
I don't know, but I would imagine it's because it is something that really "marks" us as different. It probably screams "American". And while we don't notice it much, they might perceive it as really standing out from what they expect to hear, and thus annoying. Losing the y-sound really changes the vowel quite a bit, too, so it's sort of a double whammy: no Y, and an open OO versus a tight EW.
Maybe it comes off as declasse. ;P
in Norfolk, it's common to drop every jod, like in new [nu], few [fu]...
Here in Scotland - well, here in Edinburgh anyway, "Tuesday" is pronounced as "Tu-z-deh" - with the "u" virtually identical to the French "tu". In Southern England in particular it comes out something like "Tews-dee" except in Estuary London or other Estuarised areas where it's something like "Tews-die".
"New" for me comes out as "nu" - again resembling the French vowel sound. In England it is much more like "nee-oo" - much more drawn out, whereas with us it is very short an sharp.
Here is a very old clip of Sting singing "Spread a Little Happiness", a song by Vivian Ellis who wrote it way back in the 1920s and was popular in Britain at the time. The show "SALH" has been revived very many times in theatres right across the UK over the years since then, and although it has played here in Edinburgh fairly recently I didn't go to see it even though I do like musicals (now wouldn't that make Anne Robinson smile in her inimitable way!) ;-)
I looked up Sting - his real name is Gordon Sumner and he led a group called The Police, all lads from thge Newcastle area of North East England - aka Geordieland. He certainly doesn't sound Geordie singing this song.
"Surely you'd be wise to make the most of every blues day
Don't you realise you'll find next Monday or next Tuesday
Your golden shoes day....
Even though the darkest clouds are in the sky
You musn't sigh and you musn't cry
Spread a little happiness as you go by.....please try....."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ8ahL8LsEQ&feature=related
"New" for me comes out as "nu" - again resembling the French vowel sound. In England it is much more like "nee-oo" - much more drawn out, whereas with us it is very short an sharp.
Here is a very old clip of Sting singing "Spread a Little Happiness", a song by Vivian Ellis who wrote it way back in the 1920s and was popular in Britain at the time. The show "SALH" has been revived very many times in theatres right across the UK over the years since then, and although it has played here in Edinburgh fairly recently I didn't go to see it even though I do like musicals (now wouldn't that make Anne Robinson smile in her inimitable way!) ;-)
I looked up Sting - his real name is Gordon Sumner and he led a group called The Police, all lads from thge Newcastle area of North East England - aka Geordieland. He certainly doesn't sound Geordie singing this song.
"Surely you'd be wise to make the most of every blues day
Don't you realise you'll find next Monday or next Tuesday
Your golden shoes day....
Even though the darkest clouds are in the sky
You musn't sigh and you musn't cry
Spread a little happiness as you go by.....please try....."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ8ahL8LsEQ&feature=related
<<In Southern England in particular it comes out something like "Tews-dee" except in Estuary London or other Estuarised areas where it's something like "Tews-die". >>
That -dy ending for -day words is found in a few parts of the US, too, but here I think it is most associated with southerners and rural types. Maybe Midwesterners do it, too, I don't know. But it strikes me as very old-fashioned.
That -dy ending for -day words is found in a few parts of the US, too, but here I think it is most associated with southerners and rural types. Maybe Midwesterners do it, too, I don't know. But it strikes me as very old-fashioned.
Sting was the only member f the Police from Newcastle. He completely replaced his accent early on in his career so you'd be unlikely to ever hear him sing or even speak in a northern accent. Certainly if he had done, he'd have struggled to rhyme /"tju:zd@/ with /S8uz de:/