Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3976-3980 (April 8th-12th, 2019)
oddtail:
Linguistic nerdishness regarding pronunciation incoming.
It's good to be wary when you think you pronounce different words differently. Spelling can heavily influence the perception of what we say without altering the pronunciation itself. It's extremely common and the only way to show it is to record the sound of two words being spoken and objectively comparing the soundwaves.
So I'm not saying "gray" and "grey" are not pronounced differently (they can be, depending on dialect - in IPA terms, it could be the difference between /e/ and /ɛ/, and I think some dialects may go as far as /æ/. The first is a mid-vowel, the next two are each more open. ). But some of y'all might *think* you're pronouncing differently because you keep in mind different spelling. I'm not saying this to any particular person (and I'm not saying it's NECESSARILY true), I'm pointing out the possibility.
No, really. People can swear they pronounce something differently than they actually do. Polish devoices sounds at the end of words (so "d" becomes "t", "g" becomes "k" and so on). It's not optional and every native speaker of Polish does it. But I've met several people who insist they can hear the difference between "kod" ("code") and "kot" ("cat"). They don't and they can't, and it's easily provable (e.g. people can't distinguish between the recording of the two words). But the spelling with a "d" is so suggestive that people expect the spoken "d" sound to be there, so they perceive it as such, even as they pronounce it (correctly) as "t".
(similarly, people often claim to be able to hear the difference between sounds that used to be different, but now they are different only in their spelling. In Polish, the sound "oo" can be spelt both as "u" and "ó", and they are no different, the two spellings exist for historical reasons - the difference disappeared a couple centuries back, so it's extremely unlikely anyone will distingish those. But speakers of standard modern Polish will still claim otherwise, because it *feels* like these two should differ).
EDIT: also, one of the first things I heard at my Phonology lectures at the university was: "don't look at spelling. And never, ever ASK people how they pronounce something if you want to determine the person's pronunciation". The issue being, it's very easy to let spelling influence the way you *think* you say things. Recording a word or phrase spoken by a person who didn't consciously try to pronounce the word "right" is usually much safer.
traroth:
Dora is not "baseline"...
TheEvilDog:
--- Quote from: traroth on 08 Apr 2019, 01:34 ---Dora is not "baseline"...
--- End quote ---
Before we go falling down that rabbit hole, let's just remember that Dora has an inferiority complex due to Sven's success and lifestyle, she can't take criticism well, she can dish it out but can't take it and is the oldest of the core group. In all, she's very insecure. In one panel, Marten managed to hit three of those buttons at the same time.
And let's be fair, we might joke about hair going grey, but that can be hidden with hair dye. Wrinkles are a whole different problem. Its harder to hide one and its always going to be there the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.
traroth:
--- Quote from: Castlerook on 08 Apr 2019, 04:31 ---
--- Quote from: traroth on 08 Apr 2019, 01:34 ---Dora is not "baseline"...
--- End quote ---
Before we go falling down that rabbit hole, let's just remember that Dora has an inferiority complex due to Sven's success and lifestyle, she can't take criticism well, she can dish it out but can't take it and is the oldest of the core group. In all, she's very insecure. In one panel, Marten managed to hit three of those buttons at the same time.
And let's be fair, we might joke about hair going grey, but that can be hidden with hair dye. Wrinkles are a whole different problem. Its harder to hide one and its always going to be there the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Dora, sneering ---Oh my god, are you bothered by it?
--- End quote ---
TheEvilDog:
--- Quote from: traroth on 08 Apr 2019, 05:07 ---
--- Quote from: Dora, sneering ---Oh my god, are you bothered by it?
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
A sneer is a facial expression of scorn or disgust characterized by a slight raising of one corner of the upper lip, known also as curling the lip or turning up the nose.
That's not a sneer. That was closer to a smirk. She's trying really hard not to laugh at Marten and the fact that this is something that is patently bothering Mr. "Everything is chill".
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