Re: English syllable structure

Quoting Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
> > Erm? I didn't realise there was any other pronunciation (although when
> > I was younger, I used to pronounce it /nIkj@"rA:gju@/
>
> I've *only* ever heard /'nIk@"rAgw@/ or /nikA'*AgwA/ (* = tap), the
> second being an approximation of the original Spanish pronunciation.
I used to think that it was a peculiarly British thing.
I've heard it before on BBC America and on PBS when the
Newshour has British newsfeeds. It sounds particularly
awful when they say [nIk@'r&gju:@], even if RP dialect
has a backer /&/ than North Americans.

> And on Puerto Rico, am I the only one here who uses and hears /pw/
> there?
No, I do.  That's probably a recent trend, though:  the spelling
used to be <Porto Rico>.

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Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
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