From the press

Public Radio International has provided us with this breaking news:

"It looks like the distinctive, almost-rolling "R" may be dissapearing [sic] from the Scottish accent.

Eleanor Lawson is a sociolinguist at the University of Glasgow and Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh and has conducted research on the phenomenon.
In words like "car," "cart," and "first," speakers are no longer using the typical "rhotic r" but pronouncing the word more like a British or Anglican English speaker."
I wonder what the Anglican Church has to do with it.

BTW: The two journalists (or whatever they're called) seem to have a cavalier attitude towards spelling.

Is an experiment an expieriment?

Many of my German students of English who claim to speak GB pronounce experiment as  /e/ɪ/əkspɪrɪme/ənt/. Why? They either think of experience or picked up the GA pronunciation variant /-spɪr-/. This variant is attested in LPD3 and Merriam-Webster Online, but not in EPD18.

credit: dandelionmood

Compression no. 2 (revised)

Compression as a phonetic term denotes the reduction of articulatory movements leading to

1. a reduction of diphthongs plus schwa to diphthongs or monophthongs,
2. a reduction of diphthongs to monophthongs,
3. a change from a monophthong to an approximant, 
4. a change from one vowel class to another or 
5. coalescence. 

Here are some English examples illustrating the various subtypes:

1.1 a diphthong plus schwa becomes a diphthong: /ðə rɔɪəl fæmli/ -> /ðə rɔəl fæmli/ for <the royal family>
1.2 a diphthong plus schwa becomes a monophthong: /ən aʊər əweɪ/ -> /ən ɑːr əweɪ/ for <an hour away>
2. a diphthong becomes a monophthong: /ænjʊəl/ -> /ænjʊl/ for <annual>
3. a monophthong becomes an approximant: /reɪdiəʊ/ -> /reɪdjəʊ/ for <radio>
4. a change from one vowel class to another: /væljuː/ -> /væljʊ/ for <value>
5. coalescence: /wʊd juː/ -> /wʊʤʊ/ for <would you>

Compression as a phonetic term

The term compression in its phonetic sense denotes the reduction of articulatory movements leading to

• a reduction of diphthongs plus schwa to diphthongs or monophthongs,
• a reduction of diphthongs to monophthongs,
• a change from a monophthong to an approximant, 
• a change from one vowel class to another or 
• coalescence. 

When was the term first used? The OED remains silent. It was by mere chance that I found a fairly early mention of the term in Notes on Spelling Reform of 1881 by W. R. Evans. On p.11 we read this:

During all the time occupied by these changes - the shifting of vowel-sounds step by step along the scale, the expansion of simple vowels into diphthongs, and the compression of diphthongs into simple vowel-sounds - the written form of the language remained nearly stereotyped as regards any indication of such changes, [...]

For earlier uses of the term it may be worthwhile to check "The Phonetic Journal", which was published from 1873 to 1905. It's a pity I don't have access to this journal.

BTW: I couldn't find anything on this W. R. Evans. The ODNB has but an entry on a clergyman by the same name. If any of my followers can enlighten me, I'd be most grateful.