either and neither

viri amaoro   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:27 pm GMT
I'm always confused about the correct pronounciation. Is it "eeder" or "aider"? "needer" or "neider"? Can anyone explain this to me?... Thank you.
Adam   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:31 pm GMT
They are prounced with the same "th" sound as found in the world "the".
Adam   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:34 pm GMT
That should say -

'They are pronounced with the same "the" sound as found in the world "the". '


That's what happens you spend the late afternooon down the Ye Olde Man and Scythe pub to drink a few pints of beer to cool down.

It's a nice pub. The third oldest in England. A Royalist, who led the Bolton Massacre during the English Civil War, spent three hours in there in 1651 just before he was executed right outside it.
Guest   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:39 pm GMT
Yes. you are quite correct indeed. I think vivi is Dutch. That is why he wants to say "needer". It's wrong, though. It should be "neither".
viri amaoro   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:42 pm GMT
So, it's nAIder and AIder?...
j   Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:21 pm GMT
both Webster and Cambridge consider both pronunciations as equal.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/neither
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=53341&dict=CALD
Jim   Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:36 am GMT
The American Heritage Dictionary says the same.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/E0062100.html
http://www.bartleby.com/61/41/N0054100.html

I say /i:D@/ & /ni:D@/ (i.e. "eedha" & "needha").
Travis   Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:06 am GMT
I myself say ["i:DR=] and ["ni:DR=] for "either" and "neither" respectively. Honestly, to myself ["a:IDR=] and ["na:IDR=] (the use of [R=] simply being due to the phonology of my dialect, and is likely to be [@`] instead in most other NAE dialects) sound more like affectations than anything else.
Uriel   Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:16 am GMT
It's a matter of personal choice whether you use the long E sound or the long I sound. But you would never use a D for the TH.
Guest   Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:19 am GMT
The [D] in X-Sampa is written "th" in English, while [d] is written "d".
Uriel   Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:05 am GMT
Neither viri nor I were using X-SAMPA, though.
Guest   Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:18 am GMT
viri wrote: "So, it's nAIder and AIder?... " which is partly in X-Sampa.
Uriel   Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:33 am GMT
Not necessarily. "AI" is how the English "long I" would be spelled in many other languages -- like Spanish, for example. Which is probably why X-SAMPA uses it as well.
Guest   Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:35 am GMT
So? I'm trying to help by clearing up the potential for confusion over phonetic symbols mixed in with written English.
viri amaoro   Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:39 am GMT
I'm sorry if I confused you, but my native language is portuguese and I instinctively used "AI" to represent an open A, as in the spanish sentence "AI caramba!" or the word "TAIpei" (capital of TAIwan).
I have to think more carefully in the cultural/phonetic assumptions I make.