Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id hBILMdm07077; Thu, 18 Dec 2003 16:22:39 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 16:22:39 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <000001c3c5ad$49dadc80$1a01a8c0@cccchs.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Sylvan Rainwater" <sylvan@cccchs.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9735] RE: voiced or unvoiced S, pronunciation of sword. X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510 Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2395 Lines: 48 I'm guessing this may be part of the same phenomenon that is seeing the increased pronunciation of the "t" in "often," which for many years was considered silent. It may well be a function of the focus on phonics. Most of us know that phonics is flawed in English because the language was written down when things were pronounced differently. As the pronunciation shifts, the spelling doesn't usually change, and so you end up with words being spelled strangely compared with their current pronunciation. At some point, the word was obviously pronounced with the "t" but it dropped out of pronunciation for a long time until recently. I do think I occasionally hear the word "sword" to rhyme with "toward," which another word that varies -- sometimes with the "w" and sometimes without. In a choir I sing in, we have the word "toward," and the director has instructed us to pronounce it "tord" because it sounds too weird with the "w" in it. As for reintroducing lost sounds, what about the "gh" in daughter, laughter, night, and others? Since that sound actually doesn't exist in English any more, it would be difficult. (I don't see any moves in that direction, just speculating.) Around here we have a major thoroughfare called McLoughlin Blvd, and it's usually pronounced like magloflin. But I read a newspaper article that pointed out that in early written accounts it was occasionally spelled like McGlocklin, suggesting that it indeed had that hard k sound back in the throat that we don't typically pronounce in English (similar to the J or X in Spanish/Mexico, or the "gh" in German, which is of course where much of English came from). Somehow, it came down through the years pronounced with the "f" sound instead of the "k" sound. One wonders whether in another hundred years it would disappear, but I can't even imagine how it would be pronounced then. ------- Sylvan Rainwater mailto:sylvan@cccchs.org Program Manager Family Literacy Clackamas Co. Children's Commission / Head Start Oregon City, OR USA -----Original Message----- From: nifl-esl@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-esl@nifl.gov] On Behalf Of ?,<��@"�'?�q Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 4:37 PM Hello, list members, In the words "sword, swordsman" "w" isn't pronounced, or so it says in the dictionaries. The dictionaries give a special caution as to its pronunciation, saying "w" sound is not pronounced. <SNIP>
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