xkcd #2942: Fluid Speech

https://xkcd.com/2942

explainxkcd.com for #2942

Alt text:

Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you’re okay.

  • jballsEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    Now I’m just sitting here picturing you saying stuff like “Careful don’t touch that! That pan is ho!”

    • ouRKaoS@lemmy.todayEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      After repeating it out loud for a bit, it comes out more like “hah” than “ho”

      • Glowstick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Yup exactly. It’s something like “hahd” but the end is extremely quiet, and the sound is like halfway between a t and d. Kind of like how French people say a final t at the end of a word like beret