question

leena   Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:46 am GMT
hi y'alllllllll
i have noticed various pronounciations to the word ( question). Which is the right one? sometimes i hear it like /questshin/, or /queshion/ or/quesshin/!!! sorry abt the wrong phonetic transcriptions, but i'm trying to show u simply wat i usually hear..
Franco   Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:48 am GMT
Quesh-tin
leena   Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:51 am GMT
yes franco its another way i forgot abt it. thanx 4 reminding me
Guest   Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:41 am GMT
I have also heard another pronunciation of the word: koo-shun
Franco   Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:07 am GMT
Haha, Guest, do you really think ANYONE is that gullible?
Shatnerian   Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:21 am GMT
I don't recall hearing people leave out the "t" sound, but mine comes out as "kwEsh-tEn". The "E" sounds a bit like the "e" in the word "met".
Josh Lalonde   Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:30 am GMT
I pronounce it [kwES.t_SIn] or something like "quesh-chin".
Guest   Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:50 am GMT
"kwes-chuhn" ('uh' = schwa sound)

/kwes tS@n/
/kwɛs tʃən/
/kwes tS..n/
Lazar   Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:57 am GMT
I pronounce it ["k_hwEs.tS@n], something like "quess-chun".
Josh Lalonde   Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:27 am GMT
That brings up another interesting question; what parts of North America have the weak vowel merger (ie. "roses" and "Rosa's" sound the same)? I definitely don't have it, but it looks like at least some of the Americans on here do.
Lazar   Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:49 am GMT
I think I do make a slight differentiation between "roses" and "Rosa's":

roses ["r\7U.zIz]
Rosa's [r\7U.z@z]

And I do generally maintain a distinction in final syllables like:

Harrod ["h{.r\@d]
stupid ["stUu.pId]

But in initial and medial symbols, everything reduces to schwa for me:

imitate ["Im@%t_heIt]
deliver [d@"lIv@`]

As a side note, I don't think it's possible to tell if someone has the weak vowel merger from their pronunciation of "question". I'm pretty sure [@] was the historical "unmerged" vowel used in "question", and [@] is used here by dictionaries like http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ that show unmerged pronunciations.
Lazar   Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:54 am GMT
Lol, "initial and medial symbols" should be "initial and medial syllables." ;-)
Skippy   Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:21 am GMT
I say it quesh-chin...
Travis   Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:06 am GMT
I pronounce "question" as ["k_hwEStSI~:n] or ["k_wES:I~:n] (or with [n=] instead of [I~:n]) myself.
Travis   Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:08 am GMT
That's supposed to be ["k_hwES:I~:n].