@@topherthe11th23 "Datsh very shtrange, to shink shat anyone would shay it like shat" god damn close to Shhhhean Connery

My favorite of this is Christopher Walken in "King of New York": "you guys got fat while everybody SHTAWWVED on tha street!" lol

Truth. Or...chruth!!

I feel like I'm getting called out when I watch any of his videos

Same. I’m trying to consciously fix it because I teach kids so I want them to pronounce it correctly.

I'm not worthy! 🙏🙏🙏 I should have mentioned "srimp". Charles Dickens: Capital srimps!' said Mr. Joseph Tuggs. Mr. Cymon eyed his father with a rebellious scowl, as he emphatically said 'SHRIMPS.' 'Well, then, shrimps,' said Mr. Joseph Tuggs. 'Srimps or shrimps, don't much matter.' There was pity, blended with malignity, in Mr. Cymon's eye, as he replied, 'Don't matter, father! What would Captain Waters say, if he heard such vulgarity?' (Sketches by Boz)

Sounds like a hypercorrection on the shrimp thing.

Aaaaaaahhhhh so THAT'S why Dr Phil says he hates sounding like a "srink"! This answers my comment of about 24h ago. Never expected to get the answer direct from Hank Green 🤣

I went to the comments specifically to look if Hank commented!

@@trentgraham465 yeah i'm a little dissapointed its not from chrash course. no, just kidding....crash course is infinitely better than scishow.

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing. Hopefully one day neurodivergent and disabled people won't have to worry about being judged anymore.

That's quite amazing!

@@frankdayton731 For example, I'm judging you having ignored the context of the comment you're replying to in order to make a pointless observation.

I just realized I do this omg

Rare homosapien W.

wow ur really fluent! im currently learning french

@@Spheriment thank you! I’ve been learning English for most of my life so I’ve become pretty used to it. good luck learning French,, it was a real b*tch for me

​​@@tired1923 So true. My mother is from Québec so naturally, I had to learn French. Even after speaking the language for nearly 10 years and living in Québec for 6 years, I still struggle with it, especially gendered nouns. That rule fucks me up all the time

Gotta love descriptivism in such matters, ennit. No such thing as a 'wrong' word or sound, if it is generally understood. Well... With the exception of some of the sounds of your native French, particularly some of those involving R's. They are categorically and objectively _wrong_. This is an opinion I must insist upon, as it presently seems more likely that I will persuade the rest of humanity of the point than that I will learn to correctly reproduce them...

I am a beginner/intermediate French learner. Is there a KZfaq channel (or other resource) that you know of that is similar to what Dr Geoff Lindsey does but for the French language? That sounds incredibly interesting, but I wouldn't even know where to begin!

His videos are not "a non-native speaker." I assume you are.

@@jamesmcinnis208 can you read?

​@@joelRmontfort ​ @James McInnis is making a grammar observation. The structure of "As an X, Y is..." implies that Y is an X. Obviously that's not what OP meant, the intended meaning is clear, and this mistake (if you can even call it a mistake) is extremely common. But James is pointing out that taken literally, OP's comment is saying that the video itself is a non-native speaker.

@@softy8088 Yep, it's very pedantic as the meaning was clear, but he's technically right.

Ah, the eternal conundrum: Speak/Write exactly like natives and have natives insult you for making native-like mistakes, or speak according to all the rules of "correct" English and sound unnatural and stuck-up? To be or not to be... exactly like an average modern native speaker? And should we strive for average, or is the goal to be so good that you're expressing yourself more "correctly" than the average Joe? Will the average Joe hate your stupid snobbish face when you correct his grammar mistakes?

Please ask them to take my survey!

​@@DrGeoffLindsey I must be a weird one here as that seems to come out as t'r to me, same with t'r in train. The tongue hits the roof of my mouth just behind the teeth for both at the end of the t sound. That said my grandfather was in the forces as was my father and both travelled a lot with my mum in tow for much of it. Perhaps that is also why I have a weird tendency to go with the flow up to the point of picking up an accent in many ways when I travel. It's like I somehow swallowed more of the dictionary of sounds growing up although I still find pronouncing kn really tricky since moving to the Netherlands those two consonants do not flow in sequence for me. It often either feels like I am tripping over my tongue or a slight hint of an a or u vowel seems to insert itself as a transition.

I read an early draft of an academic paper containing a phrase that spelled everyone’s favourite cheese “swish cheese”. There is a reason you’re feeling frustrated. And that road on which your frustration drives leads to horrors like this. Oh, sorry, frushtration. Academia. NO excuses.

Also, my 7 year old epsilon has a lisp. It is adorable. It’s hard not to let it go so that I can enjoy the cuteness for awhile longer. It’s not a full lisp, seems to mostly occur at, or near, the ends of words. “Swith cheeth.” That sort of thing.

Are they stupid? Not even my 9-year-old self would make that mistake.

That’s extremely cool!

Interesting. As an Australian native speaker I find Indian accents to be the second hardest to understand, only behind Chinese. Despite the presence of English in India. I think your explanation why makes a lot of sense.

I think it's because our Ts, Ds and Rs aren't alveolar or post-alveolar, they're all retroflex

The Indians I knew in grad school seemed to be split about 50/50 on sr vs shr (to my American-English speaking ears). Is it regional?

Like @LeftFalangle mentioned, it is mostly because of the post-alveloar to retroflex t/d, but I think it's also because of a trilled or tapped alveolar r, which allows for a "harder" tr, so to speak. If it was a retroflex t/d but approximant r, I believe the result would still be a fronted affricate like in the video.

English is unique among Germanic languages for spelling noun clusters like "field trip" with spaces between the constituent nouns. In languages such as German, Dutch, or Scandinavian languages, the same kind of construction exists, but no spaces are added, so it would be something like"fieldtrip".

@@fritzp9916two months late but minor note, what adds to the situation is the fact that english spelling is highly irregular and if you don't know the word, you'll have to know a bit about its origin to get a grip on how it might possibly be spelt so maybe in german you could in theory hear Schulfahrt and not know that it's composed of schul and fahrt, you could still write it by hearing the term the first time

I definitely say shtreet, but happy that I don’t say undershtand

Your Portuguese cousins also like turning S into SH too

@@shaunmckenzie5509 True, some Brazilian accents do it too (mine doesn't)

Very Inch Resting!

Some people, including myself say," inchrist", where I'm from (rural Nevada) "inchrust" sounds a little off. Also, we never smash letters after the R. It's always before the R. If someone said," Undershtand". I would assume they were eating and talking at the same time or that they have a speech impediment. I'm speaking from an American English perspective though. Maybe there are other accents out there that may smash letters after the R?

So true! I sang all through high school and college and it was my only exposure as an American to IPA. Interestingly, words like “street” or “drum” can be sung in different ways depending on intended feel. Singing “s-treet” could employ a flipped r, but could also have a quick clean s into the American R. If you used “shtreet” you’d get way too much consonant and would lose clarity across an ensemble. Interestingly, a less sophisticated choir might still have people unknowingly using “shtreet” for lack of hearing/feeling the difference. By contrast, “Jrums” makes a lot more sense, as to use the American R you sort of have to voice the D first or combine them into “Jrum”. An American r “d-rum” has a lot of bounce to it, while “jrum” fees like it is a bit more mellow and can fit in a phrase more smoothly. Then you could also do a flipped r “d-rum” for that more classical choral sound. Really fascinating topic

Further, snare is more like how street’s s is supposed to be pronounced, as a funny connection to drum

I use IPA all the time as a speech pathologist, to record exactly how clients have pronounced words during both assessments and therapy. It’s very useful, can’t do the job without it.

I like the people who say "aks" and "wif" instead of "ask" and "with", what's the story there? Also, if you can't use plurals properly you talk like Tonto. It's kind of appalling how many people have that problem.

Classically trained singers are actually taught to use IPA as part of our education. When I was in university, I had to write out the IPA for every song I did. We took an entire IPA course. It was actually quite helpful because we were required to sing in so many different languages. You might look at an Italian word, for example, and be unsure how to pronounce it, but once you saw the IPA there was no longer a question.

You know that sometimes "bias" is just a stick used to beat you and that, often, that bias isn't bias at all? I'm sure you'll have had "speech, language, dialect change all the time" thrown at you by people who lack the ability to discuss anything, usually followed by "you racist!" It really is tiresome. There are even those who say that 'you're' and 'your' should now be interchangeable because "everyone knows what you mean anyway". It's a steady decline in standards which starts with little, apparently unimportant things like speech and dress but ends with the kind of social lunacy we're seeing these days.

@@typhoon2827 🏍️ Alone you're not on this train of thought 🚂. The decay of language is a symptom of the decay of society. We're dumbing down and simplifying English for a new generation that doesn't want a difference between your and you're. Their and they're. To and too. Those who spell it how they say it and add a few apostrophes while they're at it.

@@typhoon2827 Fun fact: Singular "they" (and "them") has been in English longer than singular "you". But people who claim to want to keep English traditional only ever complain about the first.

@@ryanm7704 ooooh, sounds like copium to me, as fun a fact it might be. I'm guessing the Vikings used the non gender specific term "fisherthem" too. Am I right? 🙄

@@typhoon2827 Or that linguistics is often used by people who have no idea what they're talking about to attack and other people. I would be interested in hearing what you meant by "social lunacy".

I keep saying strong over and over like a jackass trying to hear it 😂

I'm native and I don't think I understand how to properly say train anymore.

Try putting it in a sentence like you were talking to someone! It helps you to say it more naturally for you. May also help to record yourself saying that while thinking about something else to distract your brain.

take the quiz link. I just realized I say "baddery" instead of battery. Baddery acid.

How could you have never noticed before? It's very easy to hear.

If you're learning English, don't copy this style of speaking.

@@mirvids5036 don't be ridiculous, the tr -> chr and dr -> jr change is perfectly natural and acceptable for all speakers of English. Here's Charles III saying "countries" as "countchries" in his first speech as king: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j591iLOjycXTeqs.html&ab_channel=NBCNews (skip to 1:00)

@@mirvids5036 yeah i guess it might be a bit too difficult

@@mirvids5036 Why? That's still native English. If I want to match my pronunciation to that of a native, why whould I change things like these?

@@mirvids5036 and what you’d rather people spoke like confused robots?

Wouldn't they be reading way before the age of 7 or 8 though? Is it not usual for Americans to start to read at the beginning of school at age 4-5? Or before then? When I was little we were all given crayons and pencils the moment we could grip them, so I have handwriting from when I was 1 and a half years old. And I know I was reading by the age of 2 (just basic books like Where's My Teddy? and The Very Hungry Caterpillar). At 7 or 8 I was reading books like Redwall and Goosebumps, as were most of my classmates. By then spelling words like train and dream would be easy unless the individual had some kind of learning disorder or dyslexia.

@@AlexaFaiekids start learning to recognize and write letters at 4 or 5 in the US, but depending on how fast they pick it up, it may take a year or two to learn to actually read, and longer than that to remember how words are spelled if it doesn't match up with what they're hearing, so I wouldn't be surprised to see spelling mistakes from kids that age.

I would pronounce my r's like w's and so i have to over pronounciate the r sound. It moved over into the other phonemes so train used to be "twain" but now its "chrain"

Wow you just solved my lisp thank you

Glad you worked past it 🙏

Wait, what kind of lisp did you have? And how did you pronounce your Sh, ch, j sounds before you overcome the lisp?

@@gtc239 I think the name for what I had was a "lateral lisp", if I'm not mistaken. I was never told what the name of it was when I had it, but a lateral lisp seems like the closest thing. I tried to make those sounds by just rushing air through my molars. It made those noises sound slushy and wet, rather than crisp like how they're supposed to sound.

Haha! I’m Chinese & brought up there until university age. We students really CLING ON to the words we are taught. It’s so hard to just somehow KNOW a word & its 10 other synonyms out of the blue. If a teacher taught me “oh when ur soaking wet, it’s called drenched” you bet I will only ever use that word. X)

@@harriet.z hahahaha it was really an incredible experience and made me even more aware of what I say and how I say it than I already am.. my mom is a Polish immigrant and my dad is not nor speaks Polish, so I’ve always been very aware of my speaking decisions.

What a bright 8 year old, to know that English is a Germanic language.

Your story reminded me… When my son was young he told me about a scary movie that he saw: “Drastic Park”.

@@davidkantor7978 😂😅🤣 yep! Sounds right to me! 👂🏼

Shrue Shtory! 😉

I don't know why anyone would tell you you're hearing wrong. As a native speaker this is something that seemed pretty obvious. I used to jokingly write words like train as chrain. Sorry you had to deal with this strange linguistic gas lighting for so long😂

Agreed! Not a native speaker either but this has always frustrated me. Idk if I've ever spoken a lot with others about it but I always found it hard to explain. I love seeing an explanation of it.

This entire channel is excellent, as a native speaker these are the little things that I pick up on, sometimes even subconsciously, to identify someone as a non-native speaker.

That sucks that you were treated that way

Holy crap you're right! I never noticed that before?

I remember being a toddler and asking my parents why "tree" isn't spelled like "chree" instead. It really bothered me as a kid, but I guess I've let it go as I've aged 😂

It shouldn't be acknowledged, because it's deeply wrong. LOL

@@PeterCamberwick Oh? How so?

I did this, too, with “drunk.” 😂

I think it's a shame pronunciation is more likely to change to fit spelling than vice versa.

The letters and spelling has always been changing with pronunciation. What we call an "apron" used to be called a "napron." The N used to be a part of the noun "napron" and not the article "an." But because "a napron" and "an apron" are pronounced the same, the N ended up migrating to the article when written down. Written language is but a tool that we use. We made up all these letters and words. We all learn how to listen and speak a language before we learn to read and write it. So the only thing stopping us from changing the language to fit our needs is this arbitrary desire to "conserve" something that has been changing since it started.

@@locsoluv94 Not so much since Johannes Gutenberg. Excellent ickname by the way.

@David Montgomery You're right that regional accents are becoming less distinct and more comprehensible.

@@locsoluv94 I was reading by the age of 2 and there are still words to this day that I have only ever seen written down and haven't heard others say so it always seems to get a laugh when I use them around someone who knows the word from having heard it first. They're usually the longer words which are used in very specific scenarios rather than more everyday vocabulary. Part of that comes from my Mum telling me to read the dictionary and thesaurus (most boring dinosaur by far) when I was bored as a kid. Never made me feel less bored (having a brain that doesn't produce adequate dopamine will do that to you), but I certainly learned a lot of words. But I'm learning more and more that I had a bit of a weird experience growing up. It didn't seem that way at the time, particularly when my brother was walking by 7 months so I didn't really know what else to expect (didn't know anyone else from a baby). Yes his legs ended up a bit bowed from walking that early. No we couldn't stop him, he would undo the straps and climb out of the pushchair, it was a nightmare. He could also undo any of the childproof locks without the keys you were meant to use and we still have no idea how he did it.

This is actually something that always annoyed me about German spelling. We write Sport and Straße, but say Schport and Schtraße. Sure, English spelling takes the disconnect between written and spoken to a whole new level, but German is usually quite close and these few exception stick out all the more for it.

If anything I am still pretty in the blue as to why this happened in German. The obvious comparison here is "Straße" with "Shtreet". Hower in German, this happens ALWAYS at the beginning of a word if followed by ANY consonant: Schlaf, Schmerz, Schnee, Spiel, Stuhl, Schwefel. And then in the case of K, it just becomes SCH so "scribere" becomes "schreiben" and "scola" becomes "Schule". This last case I can get behind a bit more and you can see in Scandinavia as well, where "ski" is pronounced (more like) "shee" and not "skee". I suppose S and K are really far apart and SCH pretty much in the middle so it ended up there, but still that logic doesn't work for all the other consonants and this effect only being at the beginning of words.

@@Yotanido There are actually quite a lot of deviations in spoken German from written German. Endings like -er become something like -ah, -en often gets swallowed to -n or just nothing pretty much, there are spellings like ie, ei and vocal plus h, -ig can become -ich, etc etc

@@Yotanido Standard German pronunciation is essentially a compromise between northern and southern dialects. Traditionally, northern speakers do say ẞtraße, while southwestern speakers turn every st into schp. So Kischte, künschtlich, etc. In spelling it always remains st of course, for all speakers. In a way, it's unnecessary that we include the ch before other consonants as in Schwein, schlecht, etc., because sw, sl, etc. aren't used in German anyway. It's kind of like the sr-situation in English.

I know how you feel. I'm a Czech learning German and the other day, I was really annoyed there weren't two different words for "blink" and "wink" in German. How can a language NOT HAVE that? Then I realised Czech doesn't have that, either. It's just English.

SAME I think about this every time I see a video like this. Too bad English is the lingua franca..

Trying to improve your Athabascan? Maybe your !kung ? Your Old Sumerian? Seriously, there are still almost 10,000 languages documented by SOMEBODY, even if they are wrong.

+@@Egilhelmson hyperbole, ever heard of it?

Yes, it's really hard to notice things like this in your own language

I learned German and French in highschool besides my native tongue Dutch and honestly its less neccesary in all these languages. Phonetics are more linked to how its written down and how you break up words in syllables. Its really just a few a rules and oddities you have to learn and you're good at speaking out written sentences with words that you dont even know yet. Its just that the rules can be odd for non native speakers. Like words ending with -en in dutch is not how its written but an "un" or "uh" sound and how french people dont pronounce the "H" at the start of words and most consonants at the end are barely pronounced. But usually you can look stuff up on youtube about learning phonetics of other languages, there are lots of small non english channels dedicated to (usually aimed at teaching young kids) for learning pronunciation of wirtten words.

When Gullah & Creole were more common in the American south, you’d hear it there too, but not as much these days. Some of it has crossed into African American dialects, and that is probably where it’s made it’s way into other parts of common American pronunciation.

That's how Irish people speak. Tree, tru, etc. It's because there is no TH sound in the Irish language and this passes over into the English dialect. Considering the large numbers forcibly moved to Barbados from Ireland, it would make sense there is an influence in your dialect.

​@@jenster29 I was observing the same thing. This video is a good example of the influence of the Irish accent in Montserrat. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gMyZo5xn0JfHdWQ.html

@@Mariemgt123 haha yeah they sound like they come straight out of Cork hahah

Not in American English it’s not

@@melovekittie cool but my daughters first language is British English so your comment is irrelevant.

@@melovekittie Holy fuck you aren't the center of the fucking universe. It's also wrong in Greek. Is that revelant as well?

@@NH_HN cool but the circumflex isn't used in the English language, thus we must assume there isn't a standardised pronunciation for it, so your initial comment is irrelevant

@@fraizie6815 but almost everyone who knows what british english sounds like can see what "ô" is, and how it makes sense, so your comment is less relevant (but still relevant)

Scrolled looking for someone that brought this up, thanks. I might as well be saying 'jrawr XD', I have a hard time making that word sound like two syllables

Where I'm from, the "dr" sound in "drawer" sounds like "dr" (not "jr"), but the "awer" is pronounced almost like one syllable with a long "o" vowel sound, so that it almost rhymes with door or four or pour.

And the two words that get me, mirror and solder. Meer and sodder. How?

@@andrewclarkehomeimprovement I was just getting into an argument with some friends about how to say mirror. I had no idea I was saying it as a single syllable, Meer. I am from Pittsburgh. In Fact I would love to see this guy do a video on the "Pittsburghese" and Philly accents.

@@eqbrim please don't think I was being critical of you or anyone in particular. It's just an interesting linguistic oddity. Solder. You'd say older not odder, so why sodder and not solder? Mirror! Just can't get how this can be corrupted to 'meer'. Mi-raw. So easy! It has been said that we are two people's separated by the same language. I say vive la difference! Ah, that's not exactly English is it? D'oh!

Yeah, I notice that in Family Guy. The Actor who plays Joe does it for a start. "Peter, I don't know where you got that thing, but I'm impoundeen it!".

I've noticed most people I talk to drop the g, though it usually ends up like -in or -en. Like "I was sittin there" or "he's runnin fast." It seems to be really commonly reflected in how a lot of people text or type as well, particularly younger people

The "g" isn't pronounced separately, in English "ng" is the written symbol for the sound "ŋ" which is like a nasal n (also found in "nk" or "nc" words like bank or rink or zinc)

It's weird that you written -een, instead of IPA or as in (but short )

The G-dropping is a time-honored tradition, even with upper-class accents. Ridin', huntin' an' fishin', for example. But "een"? I don't hear that very often. I think Johnny Carson was the only one I knew of that regularly spoke that way.

The Scottish 'r' can be very different from the English 'r'.

Oh absolutely, Scottish "r" doesn't fit this pattern at all.

I love the Scottish r! I think the sound of a tapped or trilled r is so much more pleasant to hear than a post-alveolar r, and this coming from the speaker of the former.

I'm from Scotland as well, I grew up with both a tapped "r" and a retroflex "r". I also speak German where "shtr" combinations are the norm. I can pronounce "chrain", but I find it requires extreme retraction and bunching of the tongue at the back while flattening the front and pressing the sides against the back molars. Definitely not possible with any kind of Scottish "r".

@@alicemilne1444 For me, "chrain" with a tapped "r" comes out sounding scouse, but maybe I'm doing it wrong...

Where I grew up (rural Wyoming), trough was pronounced "chroff" with a very clear and distinct "ch", but train, trip, and trot didn't get the "t" rounded out to a "ch". I sort of think trough is a little bit special.

@@bluewales73 Well, if you're in rural Wyoming, I'd think you would want your troughs to be "special"! : ). That's an interesting comment.

@@bluewales73 When I lived one state north in Montana (about a decade ago), chrain, chrip, etc. were the common pronunciation. Interesting to hear it might be different just a bit further south.

I mean troff and chroff are phonetically different clearly there’s no disputing that

If you pronounce the letter t and then pronounce ch, your mouth is doing a different thing, it’s a different sound

Interesting! I'm British and I would never combine s and t in disastrous. I'd pronounce it: DIS AS TER-US, so 4 syllables rather than how I guess you say it as 3.

Guilty!

@@ranulfdoswell You can hear both pronunciations in English Canadian dialects. Depending on the age of the person and region. Though a bizarre example in Canadian English is the Torontonian pronunciation of Toronto: choronna.

I think I have something similar here in southwestern MN, but I can’t tell if the TR is turning into SH or CH for me.

I think with SSBE the -trous has a definite t but I think some famous Londoners would say chr or shr as they don't anunciate that part of the word. Prestige speech affects the definite t, as the speech optimisation is likely to be seen as more vulgar and mumbly.

Could you give some examples of Slavic place names you find English people struggle to pronounce?

@@zaixai9441 One example from the video - Srebrenica has no sh. (That's of course a lot easier to do if your R is a trill, not the English R.) KH (as in Scottish loch, or German Bach) is another very common one. Many English speakers will use some form of K for that (like currently in the news, "Karkiv" or "Kerson") - misled by the writing of a consonant that doesn't really exist in English. Generally, Slavic consonant clusters are a thing many people (not just English-speaking) really struggle with. The stress being in different places in different languages (Czech: first syllable, Polish: second-to-last syllable, Russian: all over the place, you just have to know) doesn't help either.

so you don't know how to read, is what you're saying

@@john.premose I don't know what happened during your day to make you feel so angry, but I hope it gets better.

You should show the teacher this video hahaha

Nope. Your husband is right

With air escaping the mouth at the tail end of the T as the R sound comes out, tree and chree sound extremely close. Depending on who is saying them, they may sound identical. I notice when I say tree I don't connect my top teeth with my lower teeth, but when I say chain I think I do the slightest bit. In the end, what's really right? Getting a point across so that other people understand or making it more cumbersome to say? I think there's a physiological component because some people's mouths and jaws are just shaped such that it's harder to pronounce certain things a certain way. I don't know how to say tree without sounding like chree even the slightest bit despite not connecting my top and bottom teeth. If anything, my tree _sounds_ like chree, but I guess for some, if they connect their teeth, it sounds like a super quick chshree.

🙏🙏🙏

I know, right? I'm non-native and I have never heard that "shtreet shopping" sounds in native speakers, but now I do and I'm probably going to use them more myself to sound more natural. I think it is because in my native country, when learning English, there is a big push for grammar and writing, and not enough emphasis on speaking and pronunciation - which is a shame! I only wonder if I start speaking with my new tips learned from these videos, would I not sound fake? 😉

Mdr

Chronno cross, not to be confused with Chrono Cross

I have an aussie accent and I answered the opposite for most I guess that makes sense lmao

In my native language (Czech) only people with a specific kind of lisp do this or when people talk to babies. But this baby talk always looks and sounds ridiculously. So, I sometimes must laugh at English speakers with overly pronounced shtr as it reminds the baby talk here too much🙂

@@smarter_in_5_mins Well, that's... rude.

@@pleasegoawaydude What about it is exactly rude? That I was frank about how I perceive the shtr? I can't help; it is as it is. You may laugh at my English, and I cannot do anything about it. I laugh (internally) at overly pronounced shtr. In fact, I am often so distracted by it that I close the video. On the other hand, I have not named any person. Regarding cultural differences, I would recommend you some videos about Czech humor, but you could perceive it as too offensive 🙂 Anyway, try to search for "Expats Think THIS About Czech Humor"; this will give you an idea.

In my accent almost everyone says jraw, and draw and drawer are homophones unless the person is very careful to say jraw uh

where are you from? if I may ask

I was born in Alabama and grew up there, but we have been in Northeast Texas since the end of 1981. I think the first time my attention was drawn to the oral phenomena you explain was in novels where Irish speakers used it. After your video I will be on the lookout for it.

I am replying again, this time with egg on my face. I think maybe I do sometimes speak less crisply than I first imagined. I don't think I say "shtrength", but perhaps not so clearly as I should. I am going to listen to myself for a while and see exactly what I do. Thank you for your informative videos.

@@paulcarlachapman628 I'm not Mr. Lindsay haha

@@hya2in8 Whoops! Okay, lol.

yeah. its very common for native speakers to reduce the voiced "th" sound in fluent speach. clothes - "close" nothing - "nufin" / "nufing" this - "dis" we're less likely to reduce unvoiced 'th' sounds as they already take less effort to say. "with", "then", " myth", etc. roll out a lot smoother than words with voiced 'th'

​@@WGGplant isn't the th in nothing unvoiced?

@@larsswig912 yeah u right.

@Lars Wig it probably depends on the dialect I live in the Western us and I pretty much always enunciate the “th.” If anything I drop the -g in informal contexts (eg, “I’ve got nuthin” or “nuthin much.”)

​@@WGGplantI'd say that's very accent dependent. There are certainly some accents that pronounce th like f, but most consistently distinguish them.

Ooh, that’s a great example. The yod sound is influencing nearby consonants even across a word boundary: /læst jiːr/ → /læʃtʃ(j)iːr/. I wonder how “last year” and “lash cheer” compare to “lashed sheer” for these speakers-could be a source of some fun tongue-twisters, anyway. These sounds don’t seem to interact so much in accents (like mine and General American) where the /t/ sound at the end of a syllable is unreleased and/or glottal (about [ɫæst̚ˀ jɪɹ] for me).

I thought the lash cheer was a Washington State thing. It's so common here! Great example!

As a European Portuguese speaker, those are the some of the main distinctive features of your version of the language.

I believe that in Brazilian Portuguese these occur only before an "i", as you say, but certainly not before "r".

That's different, more akin to yod coalescence in English, where tune and dune are pronounced not as /tju:n/ and /dju:n/ but as /ʧuːn/ and /ʤuːn/, therefore making June and dune (and Jew and dew) homophones. That's pretty standard in many accents in the UK, though it is allophonic, and not a full merger yet.

Quantidade ou quantchidadche?

@@JT-2312 I speak BP natively. I think you’re completely right.

I think it's basically the same thing: the "yu" sound is post-alveolar, like the English "r".

Funny! I remember when I was a little boy confusing tune/chune and turn/churn!

@@echidna8159 I pronounce those words "oo" rather than "yu", and there's never a ch, so this makes sense to me.

U also changes Hs. Don't know the phonetic term for it but the H sound we make at the beginning of hue, human, hugh, huge is totally different to the one we make for hat, hit, hot, hate, hight. The tongue's further forward, and pulls sharply back before the vowel. But only with Us.

@@echidna8159 it's PALATAL, not post alveolar. but we don't fully do the PALATALIZATION so it ends up post alveolar.

I'm also a native english speaker from New Jersey and I do all of these things too! But one wierd thing is that sometimes I talk kind of funny because I'm autistic, but most people think it's just a foreign accent and I get people asking me where im from all the time. A lot of people say it sounds midwestern, but I've lived in NJ my whole life!

I’m also a native speaker from NJ and don’t do any of this lol. In fact, ‘shtrong’ always irritated me when I was younger.

Are you SubSaharan?

Hello Simon, I have a question for you Your first sentence refers to a professor But your second sentence says "they were" So, there's a numeric inconsistency I presume it was done knowingly/intentionally, i.e. it wasn't just a random error Q: Did you do that to avoid using "he/her"? If so, I understand the motivation But it leads to confusing communication (from my perspective) Thank you

@@sheltr9735 Hello, I am not the author of the original comment but just to let you know: The singular they has a very long history in the english language and is commonly used! That means you should probably prepare yourself to hear a whole lot more of it in your experience with other english speakers.

@@lasseheller9863 Ha! I'm already an old guy, but even I don't remember that! Yes, I believe you are correct, there will be more of it in my experience One of my pet peeves is ambiguous or confusing communication English (and human language, in general) already has so many potential subtle pitfalls that can undermine the transfer of information, from speaker to listener / reader The addition of an obvious "disconnect" only makes the listener's task more difficult I really dislike it Grrrrrrrr LOL Thx, have a great day

@@sheltr9735 this is why I always use y'all, which sounds very strange in my very non Southern "Cali girl" accent 🤣 at least the "they" numerical issue is present in almost all languages, but only English doesn't have a second person plural. I think all languages should have a gender neutral singular term. Yes, "they" can be used for that, but you're right, it is confusing. I think nonbinary people deserve their own term.

@@sheltr9735 I don’t think it’s confusing since the professor was the only object introduced at that point, so they must obviously refer to the professor.

I've noticed that Germans pronounce my name (Ruben) like "Rubm." Even as a child I thought that sounded excessively lazy.

@@ze_rubenator That example would be new to me, we normally put more effort in names, but it's still possible.

@@joanneaugust6611 It might be a dialect thing, but I have heard it like that from several different people throughout the years.

@@ze_rubenator I actually tried to pronounce your name aloud just now a couple of times - I absolutely cannot pronounce the n in the end. So it may not be laziness, but actually a thing with native German speakers... If I want to pronounce the n, I have to put a vowel stronger than the Schwa sound between the b and n. That sounds like Ru+Ben then. But I think the vowel sound is usually more or less swallowed, right?

@@joanneaugust6611 Yeah I also find it way easier to do it that way in German, I think the main problem is the near total emission of the e, which leaves a tricky bn cluster that as far as I can tell isn't present at the end of words in either German, English or Norwegian (my native language). Your solution to add a stronger vowel sound brings it much closer to the Norwegian pronounciation which indeed is more like Ru+Ben in two distinct syllables. Just to clarify: By lazy I don't mean Germans are lazy for speaking like that, but rather that it's a lazy feature of the German language to remove a syllable and then having to change a consonant just to make it work 😄

Picture to pitcher is funny because I say picshure

@@NoiseDay if you're paying attention, you'll notice that the quality of the vowel before it changes when you drop that final r. Generally in cases like this it lengthens.

Meanwhile, my Grandpa could fit about three r's into "wash." Haha

When you say "the rest of us" do you mean kiwis? We most assuredly do not all say "pitcher". I would assert the vast majority of us say "piksha".

@@karlhendrikse Hmm, interesting. Now that you mention it I have definitely heard that pronunciation, but I still think most people around me say pitcher. I wonder where the divide is. Is it social or geographical perhaps? I’m in the deep south.

Agreed!

As a non native English speaker, it may benefit me that I pronounce all the letters of a word, except for words that have letters omitted from their pronunciation, intentionally. It helps me with the spelling of English words tremendously. However, I am often told I sound very robotic when I speak English. In that manner, I guess it is a disadvantage.

I honestly had no clue any of this was even a thing. I just thought I was pronouncing things correctly bc that's how I've heard everyone ever since the dawn of time pronouncing those same words. My mind is blown that you're supposed to say "tuh-rain" or something like that lol. It's almost like it changed on purpose to make more sense

It's not fascinating...its wrong. And it's tragic for those kids.

@@ANGELSVEN The decay of language is rampant in many languages. Some even brag that they can barely speak correctly. This is beyond willful ignorance. This is ignorance celebrated in order to fit into a social herd.

I noticed this when I did the survey! I pronounced both “Tightrope” and “night-[something]” with glottal stops in the middle instead of ts. I’m from AZ, might be a southwest thing?

I was born in Northern California and moved to the treasure valley of Idaho when I was 7. I definitely have the impor’nt, cer’ain, moun’ian, thing. Never really realized it was a thing until now

I live in North Carolina and my extended family is from Georgia. None of us say "shtreet" but we all say "mountain". We are white and I've noticed that some of my friends who are black say "shtreet" so I'm wondering if that is also a cultural difference in the US.

​@@CaseyWatchin Also from NC and I say street and mountain. Like they're spelled.

Midwest (Ohio) here and I inadvertently remove the "T" as well

But in this case is so much harder to pronounce the Spanish r isn't it? Does "Tren" sound like "Chren"? Never heard of this haha

Yes it does!! In parts of Bolivia too. Love that you point it out! “Voy a chabajar=trabajar”

Not a native but I've been speaking Spanish for a few years and I never noticed this. I have noticed that older people, regardless of where they're from, talk differently, with how they speak and what words they'll use sometimes.

But usually we consider the French "r" to be the typical "erre moscia". The sounds are very close but I am sure there must be a linguistic distinction between French and English "r" sound.

@@Zimisce85 French R is typically /ʁ/, which is a voiced uvular fricative. It's the voiced version of /χ/, which is the sound in Scottish *loch*. Some German dialects use this R also. AFAIK, Italian uses the tapped and trilled R (/ɾ/ and /r/, respectively) mentioned in the video.

As a non native user of English, I have a hard time understanding why the words, "telephone," and, "pharmacy," have no F in them. In French and Spanish, those two words do have a letter F in them. Also, why is it that a teacher taught. But a preacher has not praught?

@@indridcold8433 In Spanish - yes, but in French they're also spelled with a "ph". And this spelling it due to their etymology (both words come from Greek).

I have seen Italians that use the uvular r (in IPA it is written as [ʁ] (like in German and French). Such an r ([ʁ]) in Russian is never accepted. In Russian this is called a картавость (kartavost'), a speech impediment. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l8CgjdN4u5iacok.html

Similar in my Limburgic Dutch dialect. S always becomes SH before another consonant. Seems a different mechanism than this one though, as it's got less to do with post alveolar harmonization rather than just a lazier pronunciation of any S(c) consonant cluster.

If you have 5 mins, please do the survey!

Interesting. I'm from the Midwest and do all of them. Never noticed I was changing anything either lol

I’m from Ohio (Dayton) and I was thrown off by the shtrong And shtreet etc. i say my s and t almost always- except sometimes I DROP the t completely like in Dayton - I will pronounce it Day-in if I’m relaxed and not minding my pronunciations. Anyway, I was raised to think that not articulating words as correctly as possible signified laziness. Lol that’s a Midwest upbringing for you. Anyway- I completed the questionnaire. Thank you for the video

im from NC in a very southern accented area and i definitely use the “shtreet” and “shtrong” !! haha

Dropping T's as in Dayton. I sometimes watch walking channels such as ActionKid who is from NYC... I don't know if it was him or others like or with him saying mittens and I realized most people I'm around drop the t's in words such as mittens, kittens, etc. Mittens~MIH´-inz

>21 >Born 2001 Oh good

@@Xnoob545 who knows - people might read this in the future

@@Xnoob545 Indeed. Otherwise, John Connor's life is in terrible danger.

@@GabeLucario I think it’s more shock that people born in 2001 are full adults communicating on the internet (especially given 2001 is one of those cultural watershed years that divide our lives, like 2020 will be for you, and 1963 for my mom. It’s like, how can there be an adult walking around who didn’t share the zeitgeist of 9/11?). I hope no disrespect was intended by the original replier.

@@KatharineOsborne Ah yeah fair enough. I did manage to see 9/11 on TV live but ofc I don't remember it lol. Plus I'm British so it's not such a big event in our own culture (ofc still massive but we don't have the TSA for example)

Lol whut?? This is squarly oriented towards native English speakers and here you are with "huge fan of Hank Green" haha.

I find this to be BS. Does t everyone pronounce street with an sh sound? How else are you even supposed to say it? Now if they used a real example of this, like, when someone says "booshter" instead of booster, that, I can totally see what you're saying about being speech impediment. But saying shtreet is just a natural way to pronounce that word. So this video was hella confusing for people who have been speaking modern English for any amount of time.

@Brandon "shtreet" is unusual enough to me that it stands out -- I always thought it was a speech impediment when I heard it. Taking Geoff's quiz was great fun, some words sounded perfectly fine both ways and some words I couldn't pronounce both ways. I'm from the Pacific Northwest of the United States; where are you?

@@Brandon-bc5um For example, Dr Lindsey's pronunciation of "street" at 7:27 - to my ear that sounds clearly like a "s" and not like the examples of "shtreet" in the video. Not saying that "shtreet" is unnatural at all! But it varies among native speakers according to accent.

Really? I haven't noticed it yet but I know that when people say "axed" instead of "asked" it drives me crazy. I always think of someone murdering with an ax/axe.

I'm also from the Midwest... Minneapolis. I've been noticing this for the last 3 years and it's MANY people from what I've noticed..... Lots of news anchors, even from major channels (altho I often see CLIPS of them on OTHER yt channels as I never watch TV and certainly not msm) It drives me CRAZY too! How are people in jobs where they are professionally speaking and yet they can't even pronounce words properly! Arghhhh!!

@@WestVirginia1959 that's a whole different ball game though as aksed is nearly exclusively spoken by black people. There sure will be an explanation for it but I'm too tired now to look it up. I don't find it irritating, I do find this shift in strong to shtrong more annoying. But maybe that is because as a non native speaker we had to learn hard to pronounce it correctly that I find it almost.... Lax to make everything post-alveolar. Not elegant at all tbh.

@@Noname24675 yep that's what I'm saying :-) It's like "I ain't doing nothing (with variations in pronounciation like nuttin' or 'nuttuhn' where the t is not really pronounced as a "true" 't', but it's hard to decribe sounds. If I could use the phonetic alphabet and everyone would immediately be able to read that it would be different but I am counting on people knowing what that pronounciation sounds like.) And it's all correct English, it is a way though to ascertain a certain 'status'or 'being', in this case being part of the black community. Again, this is part of sociolinguistics. Though not always fully lost, when in professional settings black people will talk different than being among family and friends. And that is nothing different from white people or any group of speakers for that matter. Everyone has a certain way of speaking when socializing in time off vs at work or at the hospital (though in the latter case the difference might not be as strong and people talk somewhere between the "friend/family circle" way of speech and more official manner of speaking) Record anyone for a day unknowingly and you will notice differences at home vs at work vs with friends etc. Too bad that is unethical but recording and knowing has the risk of people trying to speak the same in all 3 circumstances so data isn't that clear. But just let it go. This is an accepted form of speech in a group you do not belong to so why would you even care? Relax. Or should I say Relask?

@@danceteachermom On our local NPR station in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I'm constantly hearing "shtrucshure" for structure. Sounds so lazy!