Re: USAGE: (sorry YAEPT) /wIT/ or /wID/

Daniel Prohaska wrote:

> Hi Benct,
> I don't know about Anglo-Irish, but USEnglish has [wIT] as an alternate
> pronunciation of [wID]. the latter form is listed first in "A Pronouncing
> Dictionary of American English" by Kenyon/Knott, but with the explicit
> statement that [wIT] is not substandard.
Well, how nice of them to add that. I hate to argue with 2 eminent
lexicographers, but in my rather long life I've seldom heard and (probably)
never used [wiD]. (Even in parodied Black speech, it's [wif].)  Same for
/wiT'awt/ (and "within"), though there the tendency to voice /T/ in
intervocalic pretonic position in casual/fast speech could certainly happen.
Admittedly I'm not much in contact with younger generations, so things could
be changing.

Had I been in charge of writing that dictionary entry, I'd have put [wiT]
first, with a comment that [wiD, wiD'awt] are possibilities in unstressed,
casual environments. And "not substandard".

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