''film''

Corrs   Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:30 am GMT
I notice that I often pronounce ''film'' more like /fI5@m/ i.e. ''fill-um'', with the last syllable ending like ''column''. Does anyone else do this?
Uriel   Sun Jan 15, 2006 8:34 am GMT
I don't. It's one quick syllable for me. The only time I've heard your pattern was on Father Ted.
Travis   Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:37 am GMT
I myself just pronounce "film" like /fIlm/ -> [fI:5m], as a single syllable. Actually, I've never heard the pattern you described, but then, almost all the people I talk to most of the time in Real Life are from the Upper Midwest to begin with.
Kirk   Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:42 am GMT
Always [fI5m] here.
JJM   Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:49 am GMT
I've encountered "fil-um" fairly frequently both in North America and in the UK.
Travis   Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:24 am GMT
>>In linguistics, this process is called "epenthesis" - the insertion of a vowel or consonant into the middle of a word.

I can believe that 'fill-um' is regional British or Irish English pronunciation based on the literature I've read about them but would agree with Uriel, Kirk and Travis that /fIlm/ or [fI5m] is the only North American pronunciation at the present time.<<

One thing I would suspect, though, is that this is not true epenthesis, but rather the syllabicization of /m/ to [m=], which is likely to be perceived subjectively as "um". Epenthesis proper would require the insertion of an actual full vowel phone, rather than making an already present sonorant syllabic.

The reason why to suspect such is that such syllabicization already occurs in similar places in many English dialects, including the standard varieties, whereas actual epenthesis is not nearly as common. Furthermore, syllabicization would be likely "easier" here than epenthesis, as it requires no actual phones to be inserted and happens to already be readily possible due to the presence of the nasal /m/.

As for examples of similar syllabicization in English, such include [n=t] or [n=?] for many cases of <-n't> which come after a morpheme ending in a consonant and [I.zm=] for <-ism>. As for epenthesis in English, many of the cases which may appear superficially to be epenthesis, such as [Iz] for <-es> and [Id] for <-ed>, are generally actually the original forms for such constructs, with the "default" forms having originated historical through elision and with the original forms only being preserved in cases where elision would have caused ambiguity.
Kirk   Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:32 am GMT
I have a friend who spent some time in the province of Alberta (he went to college there for a couple of years) and he said one of the pronunciations that stuck out to him was ["fI5@m] for "film." I'm sure some Americans have it, too, tho I can't say I've ever heard it personally myself.
Guest   Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:42 am GMT
>>One thing I would suspect, though, is that this is not true epenthesis,<<

There's definitely a full vowel in there, so "film" is pronounced "fill 'em".