These words trigger in me a memory I described a few years ago, here
[<something>] reminded me of a story I heard in a half-remembered lecture, about Juan del Encina.
<autobiographical_note date_range="1971-1972">
In May 1972 I was ... not quite a world authority on sixteenth-century Spanish literature, but Professor E. M. Wilson, my lecturer for that year, was.
 |
| Juan del Encina |
Juan del Encina, author of some of the seminal works in Spanish Golden Age literature, was arrested by the Holy Inquisition in the middle of a lecture. He was away for some considerable time (years, I think, but I was never much of a note-taker; I'm sure the details are somewhere on the Internet, if you‘re that way inclined).
When he returned, his opening words were Dicebamus hesterno die [="{As} we were saying the other day"]
...
</autobiographical_note>
And Juan del Encina's words seem quite appropriate in this context. My last addition to this blog (not the main Harmless Drudgery blog, which is still fairly current, though less than vigorous) was more than 3 years ago.
But I have now moved my books from their erstwhile home at Amazon to my Google Drive, where you can find these:
o When Vowels Get Together (with sonorants) – the last Amazon release, which some
people will already have downloaded: V1.3
o When Vowels Get Together (with sonorants) – the very latest: V1.4
Diphthongs & Digraphs – an aborted experiment, being the same book as the first on this
list, but with the beginnings of an index to show different realizations of sounds (for example, /
e/ => haemmorhage, again, leather, Greenwich, leisure, leopard, foetid.... etc) .
Quite interesting, but not interesting enough for me to do the work (which was considerable,
necessarily manual, and repetitive). It's included here for historical interest.
In some respects they're not quite as readable (and you may need to instal an eBook reader to
download them to), but you avoid the trammels of the capitalist system (except for the increasingly
ubiquitous Google).
But resuming, rather belatedly, the practice of putting the Notes out there (bereft of their context though still informative) here is the first tranche of *UR* covering the words that use the /ɜ:/ sound:
- purpose
This is the sole representative of several "<range> + -purpose" compounds
- beefburger
This is the sole representative of the many other "<food>+‘burger‘" compounds.
- burqa
Macmillan English Dictionary glosses this as "another spelling of ‘burka‘", and the audio sample reflects this. But often people who use the spelling with "q" try to uise a more linguistically sensitive pronunciation with /ur/.
- churlish
Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the noun "churl", but Collins does (though the noun is rarely used in current English).
- conurbation, curmudgeon, and curmudgeonly
The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription, but the audio sample is /ə/. Both are common and acceptable.
- furbished
Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the bare infinitive "furbish", but some dictionaries (for example Collins) do.
- gurdwara
The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription, but the audio sample is /ʊ/. Like all such foreign borrowings, the pronunciation is very variable.
- hamburger
This escapes the general exclusion of "<>+burger"as the meat in a hamburger is not ham; the word simply derives from the placename "Hamburg".
- kurta
The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription, but the audio sample is /ʊ/. As with other foreign borrowings, many alternatives can be heard..
- murmur and nurture
This sound is in the first syllable. For "murmur" see also under /ə/. That section does not list "nurture", for reasons given in the Introduction.
- nocturne
I have never heard a native speaker of English make any attempt at replicating the French /y/ (when speaking English); the sound is /ɜ:/. For example, "Chopin wrote many beautiful /‘nɒktɜ:nz/".
- perturb
Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the bare infinitive, but many do. The link is to Onelook (which finds 30).
- purport
This is the noun (meaning "meaning" or "gist"). For the verb see /ə/.
- surplice
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription (of the 2nd syllable) is /plɪs/ but the audio sample has /ə/ – so that the word rhymes with "surplus". This strikes me as odd, but the word itself is not in common use, so the oddity is not serious.
- survey
This is the noun, with primary stress on the first syllable. For the verb, see the /ə/ section.
- turnabout
This is the sole representative of several " 'turn' + <preposition>" compounds.
- turncoat and turnkey
This escapes the usual exclusion of compounds because it is (now) largely metaphorical.
- turn-off
This is the sole representative of several " 'turn' + '-' + <preposition>" compounds.
- turnstile
This is the sole representative of compounds formed with "turn-".
- Urdu
Macmillan English Dictionary also has the pronunciation /ʊə/.
That's all for now. The spelling "ur" often represents the sound /ɜ:/ , and predominantly in a stressed syllable. The stress, and concomitant vowel sound, often distinguishes an /ɜ:/ word (such as the noun purport) from an /ə/ word (such as the verb purport). Other notes to follow in due course.
b.
