Saturday 5 May 2012

Epenthesis or eltse syndrome

A couple of proper linguists have told me that what I've noticed with else is quite common really: apparently we say fentce and dantce much of the time. We put an extra sound in to make articulation easier. Yes, well, I knew that really and about assimilation, where we say things like telephome bill - but not many people notice or would believe you. What I was asking was is (see what I did there?) it getting more frequent with the commonly used word "else"?

3 comments:

  1. This sort of epenthesis ([ls] > [lts]) is very common in Utah. My understanding is that it's a pretty distinctive feature of Utah English, so I'm not sure if it's widespread beyond that.

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  2. I think it's quite common in British English, too, but I was just wondering if it is on

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  3. ... On the increase in the UK, perhaps because of the influence of AmE and perhaps Caribbean. It is

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