ration

I was just watching a documentary made in Singapore by Goh Chiew Tong, a journalist with CNA, talking about food donated to old people.

In it, she says the word 'ration' often, and she always pronounces it as [reɪʃən] instead of the expected [ræʃən]. For example, listen here to her say 'from cooked food to dry rations'.

In the past, it has been suggested that DRESS and TRAP get merged in Singapore English (so 'pen' and 'pan' sound the same). But here it is suggested that FACE and TRAP are merged (so 'pane' and 'pan' would sound the same).

This merging of FACE and TRAP has been suggested for Brunei English, where 'safety' often has an open vowel, so it is pronounced as [sæfti]. But this may be different in Singapore, as TRAP has a close vowel rather than FACE having an open vowel.

One possibility is that 'ration' as [reɪʃən] is an instance of spelling pronunciation. The rules of phonics suggest that 'a' is pronounced as [eɪ] when it occurs before a single consonant in the middle of a word; and note that 'nation', 'station' and 'patience' all have [eɪ] not [æ] in their first syllable. So maybe this pronunciation of 'ration' in Singapore is just following the rules, by analogy with 'nation' and 'station' and thereby eliminating the idiosyncratic pronunciation of 'ration'. We might also note that 'rate' has [eɪ], so 'ration' with [æ] really is unexpected. Maybe one day we'll all be saying 'ration' as [reɪʃən].

Penjarak(k)an Sosial

A few days ago, I discussed the Malay for 'social distancing'. Apparently, it is penjarakan sosial.

Unfortunately, penjarakan is ambiguous. The root could be jarak ('distant'), in which case penjarakan means 'distance'; or the root could be penjara ('jail'), in which case penjarakan means 'to imprison'. It is really unfortunate that the word for social distancing also means to imprison society!

In Brunei (and maybe elsewhere?), they have resolved this by using the term penjarakkan sosial. Now, you could say this is an error, as you cannot add the suffix -kan to the adjective jarak. But at least it avoids the ambiguity of penjarakan.

Hat Trick

I have done lots of work on misunderstandings involving World Englishes; but we should remember that people in the UK and USA misunderstand each other as well.

Seth Myers (an American) was talking to John Oliver (from England) about the problems of recording his weekly show from home, and John Oliver says he has managed to record three shows successfully. This is how the conversation proceeds:

SM : well, three out of three is very er impressive

JM : that's right, it's a hat-trick

SM : yeah, you've done a hundred

Even though John Oliver holds up three fingers to illustrate that 'hat-trick' means three successes in a row, Seth Myers hears it as 'hundred'. The reasons for this are that 'hat-trick' is a British idiom, and also because they were talking together at the time.

Here is a link to the YouTube video.

polygon

How do you say 'polygon'? Traditionally it was [ˈpɒlɪgən] in British English. But increasingly, according to Lindsay (2019), it is becoming [ˈpɒlɪgɒn], with a full vowel in the final syllable rather than a schwa. Why is this change taking place?

The first factor affecting its pronunciation is spelling pronunciation: 'o' gets pronounced as [ɒ]. But in this case, there is another factor: American pronunciation. In America, there was always a full vowel in the final syllable, so it was [ˈpɑːlɪgɑːn]. So the change in British pronunciation reflects American influence.

Traditionally, in British English, speakers were averse to having a secondary stress after the primary, so 'secondary' was [ˈsekəndərɪ], with three unstressed final syllables, and similarly 'secretary' was [ˈsekrətərɪ]. In fact, there could even be four unstressed final syllables, as in 'voluntarily' [ˈvɒləntərəlɪ] and 'necessarily' [ˈnesəsərəlɪ].

But American English does not have this constraint, so these words have a secondary stress (or at least a full vowel) in the third syllable: [ˈsekənˌderɪ], [ˈsekrəˌterɪ], etc. And this pattern seems to be becoming more common in British pronunciation as well.

So perhaps the change in the pronunciation of 'polygon' (also 'pentagon' and 'hexagon') reflects the growing influence of American English and is not just spelling pronunciation.

As with 'mosquito', which I discussed in my previous post, I am pretty sure that all my Brunei students have a full vowel in the third syllable of these words, so in this respect Brunei English is more progressive in the ways English is changing than British English.

mosquito

How do you say 'mosquito'? According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, the most common pronunciation is [məˈskiːtəʊ]; but an alternative is [mɒˈskiːtəʊ], with a full vowel rather than a schwa in the first syllable.

According to Lindsay (2019), the second variant, with a full vowel in the first syllable, is becoming more common. Indeed, he claims that this is an instance of spelling pronunciation, something that is becoming increasingly widespread in the pronunciation of English.

My guess is that none of my students in Brunei has [ə] in the first syllable of this word, and they all have a full vowel [ɒ]. This is one of the many ways that the pronunciation of English in Brunei is following international trends, or maybe it is at the forefront of developments.

I will discuss some more instances of spelling pronunciation in modern English in my next post.

Reference

Lindsay, G. (2019). English after RP. Palgrave Macmillan.

vaccine

How do you pronounce 'vaccine'? I have always pronounced it as [ˈvæksiːn], with stress on the first syllable; but today I heard an interview with Bill Gates, and he pronounces it as [vækˈsiːn], with stress on the second syllable.

I thought maybe this was idiosyncratic. But surely this must be a word he hears really often, given the work of his foundation on infectious diseases. So I looked it up in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD), which shows [ˈvæksiːn] as British and [vækˈsiːn] as American. Furthermore, it adds the symbol (*) to show that the difference is "unpredictable and striking" (LPD, p. xxxv). Well, you learn something every day.

In connection with the word 'vaccine', did you know it comes from the Latin for 'cow'? This is because the original vaccine was for smallpox, as the way to prevent people from catching smallpox is to give them cowpox, a much less serious disease that gives you immunity from smallpox.

Social Distancing

What's the Malay for 'social distancing'?

This morning, I was listening to a speech (mostly) in Malay by a government minister during the 7:00 RTB news broadcast, and the Malay for 'social distancing' seems to be – 'social distancing'. (Or Maybe sosyal distansing?).

Maybe this concept is hard to express in Malay? Perhaps the concept of social distancing is alien to Malay culture? Or maybe it's just a new concept that does not yet have a term in Malay.