Is he Welsh? Or from Northern England?
Incidentally, I saw a BBC news article the other day where they featured a school in Essex that had started giving elocution lessons, as the kids were struggling to learn how to spell. An example they gave was that they think ‘thing’ is spelt ‘fing’ as that’s how they say it.
If you want a reference point for the accent, Jamie Oliver is from Essex.
Only if it’s not a diphthong. “Keeng” is more stereotypical Mexician (“steenkeeng badges!”). “Keeung” is more Southern (that second sound is probably more schwa than “uh” but you get the idea).
Really? In my accent, the ‘g’ in ‘finger’ is stressed/hard, whereas in singer it is virtually silent.
Fin-Ger
Sing-er
Yes, “thing” and “sing” rhyme. “Thang” does not always quite rhyme with “sang.”
“Thang” is a humorous mispronunciation of “thing.”
Missouri.
I think the “exaggerated Mexican accent” favored by movie actors and cartoon characters has an extended long e sound with more nasality (steeenkeeng badges).
I’m talking about a normal long e as in keep. In the sentence, Three kings sing and drink beer, I hear long e five times.
I say thing and sing exactly as Polerius does up there in Post #116, and what I hear is theng and seeng.
Pretty weird, huh?
For most people, singer & finger are “sing-er” & “fing-ger.” N automatically becomes ng before a G or K. (You don’t say “sin·k,” you say “singk,” for instance.) In one-syllable words enging in G, the G got dropped and in some dialect recording you can hear “sing·g” and “king·g,” which sounds really weird to me. Since “finger” isn’t “one who fings,” it kept its “real” G. On the other hand, fing·ger > fing·er would be a perfectly reasonable sound change and I’m not surprised to hear it’s happened somewhere.
Likewise th > f; it happened in Russia as well as Essex. For the Essex kids, “thing” is a quaint archaic spelling just like “through” for “thru” (or “fru”). It’s natural for them to assume the f- in “thing” is the same as the f- in “fox,” because for them it is exactly the same sound.
Now I really want to hear you speak these words. I listened to Polerius’ audio file and he is pronouncing all four words properly. He is definitely pronouncing “thing” not “theng”.
I’m also glad he added his pronunciation of “wet” which would rhyme with “theng”, but his pronunciation of “thing” definitely does not rhyme with his pronunciation of “wet”. Are you saying you cannot hear a difference in his pronunciation of these two words?
What is unexpected to me is that someone who says [θæɪ̈ŋ] for “thing” wouldn’t also say [sæɪ̈ŋ] for “sing.”
I’ve wondered that too, and I can only surmise that it’s because [sæɪ̈ŋ] already signifies something distinct (namely, the past of [sIɪŋ]).
I don’t have sound recording capability, but let’s split these hairs nevertheless.
The short e that I hear in thing is the same but slightly abbreviated e that I hear in wet.
If I say sing with a tongue-tween-the-lips lisp, I hear thing (theeng), but if I say the word “thing,” that vowel sound subtly transitions to a short e.
Thin and thing have slightly different vowel sounds to my ear, a short i and a short e, respectively. Likewise, when I say something, it rhymes with sing, but if I say some thing, it does not. Perhaps, after living in the south for so long, I have unconsciously drifted toward the twangy thang of so many natives, but I’m positive that I haven’t gone all the way yet.
Getting back to the OP, hell no thing and sing don’t rhyme! (Unless I’m writing song lyrics, in which case they most definitely would.)
I need to track down a mic, and I need to stop enunciating random rhyming syllables in front of my staff.
You may be hearing allophones, fine distinctions caused by the preceding or following consonant but understood as the same “sound” by most speakers.
I’m from south Texas, “sing” and “thing” rhyme. We tend to pronounce “get” git.
Now I really have no idea what you are talking about. **Polerius **pronounces *thing *& *sing *the way I have always heard them, with an ih sound. He is certainly not saying either *theng *or theeng.
Same for me.
Thing and sing rhyme for me. I grew up in the Washington DC area.
So – and sorry if I’ve missed it – but after almost three pages, do the pairs not rhyme for anyone but the OP?
You are not pronouncing “wet” and “get” as if they rhyme. You may not hear it, but I hear a very noticeable difference. Your “get” is very close to “git,” though not quite there.
You do rhyme “thing” and “sing” to my ears, though, and say them the way I am used to. I’d be curious to hear these people who say “theng” or “theeng,” I’m not even sure what that would sound like. I’m fascinated that people would pronounce “thing” differently from the last part of “something.” I would have assumed they would always rhyme.
I’m curious if other people also find this to be the case. So far, some previous posters who commented on my pronunciation have not noticed what you are claiming.
You clearly did say theeng (long I) in your recording. However, I also agree with Homo litoralis that people are actually saying theng (short E) most of the time. Here is me saying both versions with some small context, one naturally and one artificially. See which one sounds more normal. I also include “something” and “anything” said naturally to show the vowel can change in my accent.
I was raised in New Mexico (not-hispanic) so I think my accent is pretty general.
I hear a difference, but it’s a very small difference that most Americans won’t catch.