Re: USAGE: Thorn vs Eth

From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
>Nihil Sum wrote:
>> You hear "fourteen" and "eighteen" as either /fo:rti:n/ , /eiti:n/ or as
>> /fortti:n/ , /eitti:n/.
>
>I never hear them with geminated /t/'s.  I was unaware that gemination
>existed at all in English except in obvious compounds like "book-keeper"
>or "pen-knife", but even in those it's not that unusual to hear single
>consonants.
Well, I know I have geminate /t/ in them.  It is easier to tell as it does not
turn into [4] as ordinary intervocalic /t/ does (compare "fourteen" with
"sorting", "eighteen" with "Nadine"?)

Of course, it really is just as much a compound as "book-keeper" or
"pen-knife"... both "eight" and "teen" are words in common use.

>And the spelling "eighteen" suggests that the single /t/ pronunciation
>is very old.
Well, we also have "eighth" with one <t> standing for /tT/ (at least in my
speech).   Google seems to have plenty enough hits for "eightteen" (and,
dismayingly, "eightth"), but whether these are pronunciation spellings or
typos
is probably not easy to tell.

    *Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/

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