Layer vs. lair

Josh Lalonde   Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:17 pm GMT
The same song also rhymes 'stare' and 'prayer' with 'player'. I assume this is pronounced with two syllables in most accents?
zzz   Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:49 pm GMT
yeah:
stare [stEr\]
prayer [prEr\]
player [pler=]
Rod   Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:25 am GMT
It's fairly common to pronounce "yet" like a short "yeah" in phrases like "Not yet!" and "...haven't done much yet." using a glottal stop for each T.
Uriel   Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:09 am GMT
Yet and yeah have completely different vowel sounds for me, so T or not, there would be no way they could sound similar in my speech.
Lazar   Sun Feb 18, 2007 1:12 pm GMT
<<The same song also rhymes 'stare' and 'prayer' with 'player'. I assume this is pronounced with two syllables in most accents?>>

Yes, I think most accents use 2 syllables in "player". For me, it's ["p_hleI.@`].

As for "yeah", I think in Britain it's usually pronounced ["jE@], so it can sometimes sound similar to "yet". But I think the most common American pronunciation is ["j{] (which is how I, and I think Uriel, say it), which doesn't sound at all like "yet".

(The American pronunciation of "yeah", like "duh" ["dV], is a rare instance of a checked vowel being used in a free position.)
Guest   Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:04 pm GMT
<<(The American pronunciation of "yeah", like "duh" ["dV], is a rare instance of a checked vowel being used in a free position.)>>>

Yeah, that's true. Duh! lol!
Guest   Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:34 pm GMT
Some people pronounce "mayor" the same as "mare". Similarly, some people pronounce "seer" the same as "sere". I think everyone pronounces "prayer" (act of praying) as "prare", but "prayer" (one that prays), if used, would be pronounced as 2 syllables.
Josh Lalonde   Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:53 pm GMT
I think you're all right about 'prayer'. It seems that I was using a hypercorrected form or a spelling pronunciation, but as I said before, I pronounce it [p_hr\Er\] in casual speech anyway.
As for 'yeah' and 'yet', I have a strange vowel in the former that I don't think occurs in any other words. It sounds almost like the RP pronunciation of 'air'. So it is [jE@] (approximately). 'Yet' has a glottal stop in all but the most careful speech and a checked vowel [jE?], so they are not even close in pronunciation.
The main thing I was wondering in this thread is about the development of centring diphthongs [I@], [E@] in non-rhotic varieties. I've read that they have been monophthising in RP and Estuary English (and have already in Australia). I was wondering if this change is affecting sequences of [E.@] and[I.@] in words like 'player' and 'seer' (though I have to admit that the latter is homophonous with 'sere' for me [si:r\].
Guest   Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:35 pm GMT
>>So it is [jE@] (approximately). 'Yet' has a glottal stop in all but the most careful speech and a checked vowel [jE?], so they are not even close in pronunciation.<<

'Yeah' [jE@] and 'yet' [jE?] ... close enough!
MegaBox   Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:40 pm GMT
<<The main thing I was wondering in this thread is about the development of centring diphthongs [I@], [E@] in non-rhotic varieties. I've read that they have been monophthising in RP and Estuary English (and have already in Australia).>>

I have the cheer-chair merger and use the monophthong /e:/ in both of those words.
Josh Lalonde   Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:04 am GMT
<<I have the cheer-chair merger and use the monophthong /e:/ in both of those words.>>
I think that's pretty much universal in Jamaica.

<<'Yeah' [jE@] and 'yet' [jE?] ... close enough!>>
I think it's actually closer to [jI@]. It's hard to say, because it's not really in my vowel inventory. The word 'yeah' is an interjection and I think functions sort of paralinguistically, so it's hard for me to judge the exact quality of the vowel.