• force@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      English phonology, American English dialects’ (and other dialects’) /r/ is usually pronounced retracted, post-alveolar/pre-palatal (usually bunched/molar), transcribed something like [ɹ̠ᶹ], so it causes alveolar consonants in the same cluster to retract/palatalize, usually into a post-alveolar affricate ([d͡ʒ] – the “j” sound for voiced stop /d/, [t͡ʃ] – the “ch” sound for voiceless stop /t/, [ʃ] – the “sh” sound for voiceless fricative /s/). The term would be assimilation (of place of articulation).

      “Dragon” /dræ.gən/ -> [dɹ̠æ.ɡɪ̈n] -> [d̠ʒɹ̠æ.ɡ(ɪ̈)n]

      You can see the same thing with words like “tree” /tri/ -> [t̠ʃɹ̠i] or even “street” /strit/ -> [ʃt̠ɹ̠it]

      Would explain simpler but can’t, break ends now, just know its because consonant pronounced in different place in mouth is conforming to being pronounced in the same place in mouth as other consonant that is right beside it (like with “in-” vs “im-”, “impractical”, which notably isn’t “inpractical”, or “incandescent” which notably isn’t “imcandascent”, or “indecisive” etc. etc.)

        • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          They made almost no attempt to put it in layman’s terms, which means as an explanation it is not very helpful unless you already know enough about the topic to not need to ask about it in the first place. Correct and unhelpful. But I guess they were busy.

            • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              What would be a good place to start with IPA? Going off Wikipedia’s pages on the matter is like Force’s comment, well-intentioned but not a great intro as you flit back & forth across the tables making sense of it.

              I also vaguely remember a similar experience with physical dictionaries, which I think tend to have some kind of IPA (or related) pronunciation guide in them. It’s been awhile since I’ve used one though, hence the foggy memory, and some online dictionaries seem to have given up on showing IPA pronunciation guides.

            • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              I understood it, after I googled a lot of what they said. And I’m not trying to give them shit, they made an effort to be helpful, it just wasn’t really.

                • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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                  1 year ago

                  I mean the quality of an explanation is a matter of opinion. I already admitted it was a technically correct explanation, but I stand by my opinion. You can disagree but have failed to convince me to think otherwise.

                  • redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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                    1 year ago

                    Do you honestly see zero value in finding information, that when you couldn’t understand, you ended up educating yourself about, finally learning something new?

                    Far from useless, and certainly many people here did understand straight away, as well.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Okay, I think I get it. When I say “dr-” the r is made with the tip of my tongue just behind my front teeth, but when I say “jr-” (like in badger), the r is made with the middle of my tounge in the middle of my mouth. Neat!

      • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I love seeing linguists on Lemmy. Wish we had a bigger community.

        To put it in layman’s terms just focus on explaining that J is often [d͡ʒ] which already has a D sound in it.

    • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m thinking it’s a regional thing and this guy is from my general region, it’s totally a thing out here. The letter “T” is really only useful on paper, people use “D” when they speak for the most part for “T” (except for T’s followed by an “h”), and “J” is any “D” when followed by an “r”. Side note, i found it jarring when I was younger and saw a Superman cartoon for the first time, and all the characters were pronouncing “Luthor” as “Luthor”, not “Luther”

      • kase@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Haha same here. And to add onto the Luthor bit, everyone I know pronounces “-or” and “-er” words as “-ir”. Pretty much everybody agrees it sounds stupid, but nobody has the power to stop it.

        • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I mean, we don’t think it sounds stupid, it’s just normal. I’d not have noticed if i hadn’t spent so long abroad, where people though my accent was peculiar, and later laughed often when they’d hear my voice revert halfway through overheard phone calls home. That and owning a bar in my home region and often listening to the wildly different accents people rolling through. Englishmen berating me for my pronunciation of words like “Wilstshire” and “Cheshire”, “Jaguar”, “Brown Sauce” while they order a Kokanee but pronounce it “Cocainee”

    • isthingoneventhis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pretend like you’re french: j’ragon. It’s the second G in garage or however you would say au jou sauce.

      eta: if you’re pronouncing dragon and jragon the same, I’m really concerned and alarmed.

          • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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            1 year ago

            Yeah if I slow down and pronounce it with intention, they’re different. In normal speech though, it’s basically “jragon”

        • isthingoneventhis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Absolutely not. Am American, so I’m gonna go on a limb and assume most of my friends would also probably pronounce it similarly.

          The way you say Jra-gon and Dra-gon is completely different in most accents on the West coast. I’m very confident in that.

          I think the Midwest would probably say it pretty samsies because they’re not emphasizing the first letter: jRa-gun / dRa-gun or jra-Gn / dra-Gn. Probably gets lost in the sauce a little.

          Idk about East Coast, but tbh it probably is closer to Midwesterners dropping consonants and shit so who knows.

        • isthingoneventhis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It was more like “french” how Americans think french is, sadly not actual french. It was to overemphasize the starting sound, since sometimes it’s hard to isolate sounds and move them around like that (mouth position wise) when you don’t commonly have other words that start with those sounds.