Sunday 7 September 2014

'-ed' and /-ɪd/

In an earlier post (see here) I wrote about the pron of <-ed> in aged. As you know there are many more words ending in <-ed>. The pronunciation of many of these words is rule-governed and the rule is fairly simple. I'm talking about the so-called regular past (participle) tense form of verbs such as
hate, love, seize. Here we have three allomorphs which are phonologically conditioned: The final phoneme of the verb in its infinitival form decides upon the correct allomorph. If the verb ends in an alveolar plosive, we add /ɪd/ as in hate. With final voiced sounds other than alveolar plosives we add /-d/, otherwise /-t/. So far, so easy.
But there are a few adjectives with final <-ed> most of which require the pronunciation /ɪd/ or /əd/ (I may not have dug up all):
  1. aged
  2. beloved
  3. blessed
  4. cragged
  5. crooked
  6. cursed
  7. cussed
  8. deuced
  9. dogged
  10. jagged
  11. learned
  12. -legged, legged3
  13. naked
  14. ragged3
  15. reserved
  16. rugged
  17. sacred
  18. wicked
  19. winged (sense: having wings)
  20. wretched 
Here are some sample phrases and sentences illustrating their verbal (= 2nd column) and nominal2 (= 4th column) use.
    1 he aged quickly, she's aged 12 --> my aged grandma
    2 I was beloved again --> my beloved daughter
    3 he blessed them --> the Blessed Virgin Mary
    4 ?? --> what a cragged stone
    5 its horns crooked backwards --> a crooked nose
    6 she cursed her fate --> she's a cursed woman
    7 the witch cussed him --> what a cussed day
    8 planes are deuced by some people --> don't be so deuced obstinate
    9 he dogged her footsteps --> their dogged resistance
    10 he jagged his hand --> Cornwall's jagged coast
    11 I've never learned this --> my learned friend
    12 I got on my toes and legged it --> he sat cross-legged on a stool
    13 ?? --> she was stark naked
    14 ?? --> men in ragged clothes
    15 he reserved two seats --> go fetch the reserved tickets
    16 she ragged him mercilessly about his sex life --> a land of rugged mountains
    17 ?? --> our chapel is a sacred place
    18 ?? --> she is a wicked person
    19 the bird winged back and forth --> Pegasus is a winged horse
    20 ?? --> he made the wretched happy
     
    What about their pronunciations?
      pronunciation(s)1
    1  aged  'of a particular age'
     'old'
    -->  eɪdʒd
    ˈeɪdʒɪd

    2  beloved   -->  bɪˈlʌvɪd, bɪˈlʌvd
    3  blessed --> ˈblesɪd
    4  cragged --> ˈkraɡɪd
    5  crooked  'not straight'
     'having a crook'
    --> ˈkrʊkɪd
     krʊkt

    6  cursed
    --> 'kɜːsɪd, kɜːst
    7  cussed --> 'kʌsɪd
    8  deuced --> 'djuːsɪd, djuːst
    9  dogged --> 'dɒgɪd
    10 jagged --> 'ʤagɪd
    11 learned --> 'lɜːnɪd
    12 -legged --> 'legɪd
    13 naked --> 'neɪkɪd
    14 ragged --> 'ragɪd
    15 reserved --> rɪ'zɜːvd
    16 rugged --> 'rʌgɪd
    17 sacred --> 'seɪkrɪd
    18 wicked --> 'wɪkɪd
    19 winged --> wɪŋd, 'wɪŋɪd (= poetic)
    20 wretched --> 'reʧɪd
Things are getting even more complicated because some of these adjectives have a parallel adverbial form, e.g. reserved -> reservedly. More on those in a later post.
--------------------------
1 based on LPD3 and CPD18 (if listed at all); /æ/ -> /a/; the reference accent is GB.
2 nominal = adjectival and substantival
3 My thanks go to John Maidment for drawing my attention to these two verbs. The sentences were pinched from various sources.

Saturday 6 September 2014

'playstation' by phonetic transformation becomes a fish&chips shop

What will become of a playstation if and when you manipulate it phonetically in the following way:
1. apply pre-fortis clipping to the first diphthong;
2. lengthen the duration of /s/ (need not be done in fluent utterance)?




Postscript: What is now a 'Plaice Station' once was the Padgate Railway Station. The station building is unstaffed now and part of it is used by this fish&chip shop.

© Copyright JThomas and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence




Tuesday 2 September 2014

wʊlfgæŋ æmədeɪəs ...

... no, not exactly! But almost.

credit: www.mowsart.co.uk