Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3976-3980 (April 8th-12th, 2019)

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Tova:
I actually spent a good number of minutes wrestling to come up with any kind of difference in pronunciation. I failed utterly.

I'm all for pithy posts, but this one has me baffled.

Zebediah:
Seriously? All right then: “gray” is pronounced with the jaw more open and the tongue slightly farther forward in the mouth than “grey”. To me, at least, this produces a subtle but audible difference in the vowel sounds.

Gyrre:

--- Quote from: pwhodges on 07 Apr 2019, 00:53 ---Hmm; I pronounce whey and bay with the same vowel...

--- End quote ---

I'm not sure how to describe it, but I guess I half-pronounce the 'y' when the 'e' is used? Making the 'e' kind of like a dotted note.
I hope that makes any amount of sense.

EDIT: for specificity

TheEvilDog:
I suppose if it comes down to pronunciation, its "e" as a short vowel and "a" as a long vowel.

Or it just doesn't matter because linguistic drift has rendered the original pronunciation and spelling moot.

Tova:

--- Quote from: Zebediah on 07 Apr 2019, 03:28 ---Seriously?

--- End quote ---

Okay, you seem incredulous, so let me explain.

First of all, this forum has an international audience. Pronunciation is not, in general, evident from spelling alone. That is why dictionaries use phonetic alphabets. It would help out a lot if you could refer to a phonetic spelling rather than simply say, "it's pronounced like it's spelled," and expect your entire audience to reach the same conclusion.

Secondly, it certainly is not obvious that two different spellings produce two different pronunciations. There is such a thing as homophones - differing spellings producing identical pronunciation. Indeed, according to the OED and Chambers, the two references I have at hand, grey and gray are indeed homophones.

So, just to be clear, I'm not entirely surprised that somewhere in the world, someone believes them to be articulated slightly differently. But, to be honest, your surprise that other people in the world don't share that view I found to be a touch grating.

So, it would be great if you could produce a source for your claim, and the phonetic spelling for each of your two claimed pronunciations, so that the rest of us may be enlightened.

But I strongly suspect that differences come down to regional variation, not spelling.

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