Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: interesting pronunciation

No, no, I mean the pronunciation of "interesting"!
Some dictionaries report ['Interestin] while others [Inte'restin]. Why?
Kiuhnm

 Kiuhnm
Maybe because they are both used :-)

 Maybe because they are both used :-)
But then shouldn't they be both reported by every major dictionary?
Kiuhnm

 taken as a disclaimer.

 'Interesting, isn't it?
It seems they are both acceptable:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=interesting
Kiuhnm

 I've never said nor have I heard [inte'restin(g)].
Then you've never seen Serenity, one of the best movies ever!
Wash: "...this landing is gonna get pretty interesting"
Mal: "Define 'interesting'!
Wash: "'Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die'?"
(both are inte'resting)
-- 
Laz - [ 
http://www.dimensionedelta.net
 ]
[ 
http://www.josswhedon.it
 | 
http://www.miltoncaniff.net
 ]
"If love is blind I guess I'll buy myself a cane" 

 
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=interesting
Il più delle volte l'accento cade sulla prima sillaba, ma può capitare di 
sentire anche l'altra pronuncia.
Tschau,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
"I'm not a gay pirate, I have sex with my parrot all the time! OK, that came 
out wrong." 

 di sentire anche l'altra pronuncia.
Insomma è un fatto di cadenza.
Kiuhnm


Like Joey (US) , I (UK) have never heard the second pronunciation (stress on 
'est') . Of course , we can't be (and haven't been quite) everywehere , but 
it doesn't look as though it's all that widespread . If you used it talking 
to me , I'd correct you .
The pronunciation 'intrest'ing' (stressed 'ing')wouldn't be uncommon in 
certain situations- e.g '*That's* interesting!' , if you stress 'that' ; if 
'that' is unstressed , then you'd have to stress 'int' ; however , you could 
stress both 'that' and 'int' - in this case it is indeed a matter of cadence 
, depending on the shade of meaning you wish to convey .
Mike 

 matter of cadence , depending on the shade of meaning you wish to convey .
Thanks for your explanation, Mike (the one who can find something 
serious in my words even when I struggle to be flippant).
Kiuhnm

 Insomma è un fatto di cadenza.
Nei telefilm americani mi è sicuramente successo di sentire "inte'resting", 
anche se ovviamente non ti riesco a dire in quali. Forse Supernatural, ma 
non ci metterei la mano sul fuoco. Per quanto riguarda film o serie tv 
britanniche, poichè sapevo già che entrambe le pronuncie erano "consentite", 
non ci ho fatto mai troppo caso nel caso avessi sentito l'interesting 
incriminato. Interessante, eh? (direi di no!)


On Jul 25, 2007, Kiuhnm wrote:

From my own experience, 
dictionary.com
 is not entirely trustworthy. I have 
written to correct them on one of their definitions, and have found more than 
one error in their listings.
However, note that in each of the three pronunciations they give, the stress 
is consistently on the first syllable.
['in-ter-uh-sting, 'in-truh-sting, 'in-tuh-res-ting]
and the variants have to do with the pronunciation of the following syllable 
'ter', which may be glossed over to become 'tr&' or 't&'.
In fact, their last suggested pronunciation is probably the most common.
Trust me: you don't want to say in-TER-es-ting. (But please pronounce the 
final 'g'.) 


 (But please pronounce the final 'g'.) 
Why? That's the only thing about which all dictionaries agree with each 
other!
Kiuhnm


I haven't seen the film, but I would wager that it is ìn-tèr-es-ting
(primary accent on first syllable, secondary accent on second syllable, when
the word is spoken slowly and stretched out, as in "Vè-ry ìn-tè-res-ting!"),
and not in-tèr-es-ting. That would indeed sound strange. Normally we in the
US tend to combine the second and third syllables into one, but we do
stretch it out occasionally into a four-syllable word for emphasis. I have
seen no dictionary which shows the accent on the second syllable, nor can I
recall ever having heard the accent on the second syllable.
Joe from Massachusetts

On Jul 25, 2007, Kiuhnm wrote:

I doubt *any* dictionary proposes a pronunciation in "-in". Even the one you 
cited, 
dictionary.com
, has -ing as the last syllable.
Maybe you are misunderstanding me, and maybe I'm misunderstanding you.
In any word ending in -ing, the 'g' should be pronounced, meaning that it 
should nasalize the final 'n'. I'm sorry I don't know the proper phonetic 
symbol for that sound (it seems to be an 'n' with a long tail, maybe.) I 
don't mean to pronounce it "-ing-g", if that's what you're thinking.
My point is, you should *not* pronounce it " 'in-ter-est-tin." It sounds 
undeducated.


 don't mean to pronounce it "-ing-g", if that's what you're thinking.
Ok, it was indeed a misunderstanding.
Kiuhnm


I don't see any indication of an accent on the second syllable here.
I think you are misinterpreting their notation, or their notation is not
sufficiently clear.
Joe from Massachusetts

 wrote in message
news:HLOpi.7734$gZ1...@newsfe21.lga...

Dictionary.con indicates accents by bold letters. Italics do not indicate
accent, but rather phonetic differences.

 accent, but rather phonetic differences.
Maybe I misinterpreted the notation of the American Heritage Dictionary.
Search for "Arousing or" in that page.
Kiuhnm

 
Yes, it is a rather common surname. I don't know the Vietnamese 
pronunciation, but here it's usually pronounced "ing".


 wrote in message
news:46a7bb67$0$4793$4faf...@reader4.news.tin.it...

Note that the first syllable is not repeated for the subsequent variations,
indicating that the first syllable is always accented. In addition, note
that the primary accent symbol on the first syllable is bold. An accent
symbol appears on the third syllable in their notation, not on the second
syllable, and it is not bold, indicating a secondary accent.
There is only one audio pronunciation given.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/56/I0185600.html
Joe from Massachusetts



Merriam-Webster gives two:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/interesting
click on 'interesting' for that entry; there are two audio files.


 "Vè-ry ìn-tè-res-ting!"), and not in-tèr-es-ting.
Let's see if I can find the sentence in a trailer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmq9X0zfXv8
 at about 1:59.



And both have the accent on the first syllable.
Joe from Massachusetts


That sounds much like the second pronunciation at the Merriam Webster site
pointed out by Joey Dee.
An English speaker might not readily agree about the location of the primary
accent in "precipitevolissimevolmente", but an Italian would.
Joe from Massachusetts

 
Very clearly and unequivocably "IN-terr-es-ting". Both times.


 
OOps. Get that 'b' out of there... unequivocally.
(Way to NOT make a point, Joe.) :-(


 Very clearly and unequivocably "IN-terr-es-ting". Both times.
Okay, now I get what you mean.


 And both have the accent on the first syllable.
To my ear, the second one has clearly the accent on the second "e", 
therefore the third syllable: in-ter-EST-ing.
-- 
Ciao
Frank

"Frank Rusq Allah" <ruscZ...@iolZZZ.itZZZ> wrote in message
news:46aa4810$0$17943$4faf...@reader1.news.tin.it...

My ear hears the accent on the first syllable, and the pitch descending
slightly for each subsequent syllable.
The third syllable may be stretched out, but it is not accented.
Joe from Massachusetts

 
Try the other ear then; the one you used is unreliable. :-)


 -- 
My old SoundBlaster software used to have a feature where you could view the
waveform of a file as you played it. That might come in handy in situations
like this.
Maybe I'll reinstall it and see if it works with my newer sound card.
Joe from Massachusetts

 Try the other ear then; the one you used is unreliable. :-)
Sorry, but my other ear is Italian as well :-).
What do the other Italian native speakers think?
I stick to my position, of course; it's obvious the two pronunciations are 
different: what makes the difference, if not the main stress on a different 
syllable?
-- 
Ciao
Frank

 different syllable?
There are three way to stress a syllable: one can change the volume, the 
tone (pitch) or the duration. If you listen to the recording very 
carefully, you'll notice that the first syllable is pronounced with a 
higher pitch than the rest of the word. It is true that the third 
syllable is a bit stretched, but the pitch changes have the precedence.
I'm now quite sure that the Collins Dictionary try to propose this 
second pronounciation, but I think it fails because I can hear no change 
in pitch whatsoever on the first syllable.
Kiuhnm