Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: yet another thread about -ng- pronunciation

Hello ICLIngs,
According to all the dictionaries I've checked that on, 'finger' and
'singer' are apparently supposed to be pronunced differently as regards as
the sound of the 'g':
    finger   /fINg@/
    singer   /sIN@/  (no 'g')
Strangely enough, though, I just asked two native British/American
co-workers, and they claim both words sound _exactly_ the same.
What do you think?
Max


So, 'singer' and 'sinner' are pronounced in the same way. How confusing!

 
No, they are not.
'singer' is /sIN@/, 'sinner' is /sIn@/.
Max

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
No, they're not actually. Sing or singer has a 'ng' sound as in
'sangue' but the g is less audible and the 'n' is not pronounced when
with the g, as they are in effect one sound represented by two
letters. 
However some accents pronounce the g much harder, I've heard some
English people use it, and some dialects will even pronounce that
'ng' as a 'nk'. 
If those phonetic symbols are correct then finger is fiN-g@r and
singer is siN-@r
Where the N is the ng sound in hang, hanger, anger and the @ is an
upside down e.
Finger or anger 
Singer or hanger
then there is singe - as in burning, this is pronounced differently
again. sinj.
Cheers,
Loki
-- 
  Brevity is the soul of wit.    W.Shakespeare

 (This is documented on 
www.alt-usage-english.org
.)
That's what I've been looking for. :-) Ta.


So, 'singer' and 'sinner' are pronounced in the same way. How
confusing!
What's this fuss all about, I wonder, when it so simple to
look it up on 
www.webster.com
, and even have it pronounced to you.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
 gives you a printed pronunciation guide
only, no audio, but the difference is equally evident.
(That goes for
finger, singer, sinner, but does not address the original argument about a
supposedly dropped "g" in "studying English", where I personally see no
difference in the pronounciation of "studying" beween "studying English"
and "studying Russian", but I do not wish to get drawn into this
discussion)
---
Xakero
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://usenet.iol.it
 

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That they come from the same region with this lack of variation?


 
Possible, but not very likely, as one comes from Toronto and the other
from London.
Maybe they do pronounce them differently, they are just not aware of it,
and my ear is not keen enough to perceive the difference.
Max

 Xakero
You don't?? Shame on you, a little studyin' never hurt no-one.
Leastaways, that's what I'm thinkin'. :-)
 English has for years used an apostrophe to indicate a dropped
letter.
Personally I can't hear the diference in pesce / pesca for the e
sound. Our ears and brains need to be trained by 6 months to
differentiate sounds or it will be a hard row to hoe later on. ;-)


letter.
I know, an' as regards the droppin' of the last letter in words endin' in
-ing, that reminds me of an anecdote I was told, playin' in England in the
mid-sixties.
There was this beautiful weather girl on a private TV
channel, tall and blond, probably of Swedish extraction, with all the
curves in the right places -- sorry, I did not mean to sound sexist,
suffice it to say that she was a lovely sight to behold. She delivered the
meteorological report most efficiently and informatively after the prime
time news, and it was certainly not her fault if a large number of viewers,
not only male, switched to her channel not exclusively because of her
professional acumen.
Now, you have to remember that this was almost
forty years ago, when there were no computer animated graphics. The weather
reporters worked with a type of large blackboard that had a metal backing,
with the map of Ireland and Great Britain painted on it, onto which
magnetised picture symbols to represent various weather conditions were
placed. One evening, the report went something like this:
"… showers
over Ireland …" -- plonk went a symbol with cloud and rain -- "… cloudy
with sunny spells in Scotland and northern England …" -- plonk went a
symbol with a sun partly covered by a cloud -- "… fog in London and the
South East …" -- there being no symbol for fog, plonk went the individual
letters F, O and G. As the lady continued her report, the F slipped down an
inch or two; without batting an eye she moved it back into position, but it
slipped again, perhaps its magnetisation had weakened.
Unperturbed, the
lady continued her report, closed it as usual by wishing all a good
evening, and on this occasion, as an afterthought and with the enchanting
smile for which she was known, added: "Oh, and I’m sorry about the F in
Fog"
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... added: "Oh, and I'm sorry about the F in Fog"
..., then, within a
fraction of a second, blushed deeply as she
realised the double entendre
of which she had just said.
(Added for the benefit of those who might
otherwise not understand the
punch line)


 Max
There is a variation of English that does pronounce them the same,
but what its spread is and why, I couldn't tell you. Bound to be
something on the net. :-)


 Xakero
LOL