There’s teaser on History Channel (may be a special HC for Scandinavia) for one of those annoying Psychic Detective shows. The voice over seems to me to be reading “When the trail goes cold” with “trail” pronounced the way I’d pronounce “trial”. M-W only gives the pronunciations I’m used to, but before I continue shouting “trail” at the TV once every couple of days I wanted to check with the entirety of the English speaking world (you’re all here right) if this is actually normal somewhere, and not just television stupidity.
In Oz it would be.
Some southern US accents might approximate that, if not exactly. But yeah, Australia definitely. They like to throw some shrimp on the barbie after hiking on the trial. Maybe more like Trile than Trial.
But… How do Australians pronounce the word “trial”?
I’m Australian and we do not pronounce trail like anything but tray-ell. And we pronounce trial try-ell.
I’ve never had the slightest difficulty telling the two words apart.
Why do Americans pronounce both words as “troll”?
I’m American, and most definitely do not pronounce “troll” the same as “trial” or “trail”. I have a NJ-ish accent, sort of a halfway point between a NYC and a Philly accent, but quite different from a Georgia or California accent. This means that I don’t have most “typical” US vowel mergers. I differentiate Mary, marry, and merry, pronounce “cot” differently than “caught”, and would never confuse a pin and a pen.
And for the opposite phenomenon, there’s the Association song “Along Comes Mary,” in which composer Tandyn Almer wrote:
And maybe rather gather tales
From all the trails and tribulations
No one ever sees
I’m trying to imagine what this “troll” you hear is. The way we pronounce “troll” is quite different than “trial” or “trail.” I imagine you’re using the “o” there to denote the vowel in most American accents that corresponds to the “o” in “cot.” I guess that can maybe approximate some sort of Southern accent, but it’s not the common pronunciation for either of those words.
That would be southern US as well.
Would those be Central Americans? Or, possibly South Americans? Outside the US, they do pronounce English words oddly. :dubious:
You have to forgive the Aussies, since they have to read everything upside down. Sometimes that makes them get the vowels mixed up.
Moderator Note
Accusations of trolling (which this appears to be) are not permitted outside the Pit. No warning issued, but don’t this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I’d consider trail a single syllable word that rhymes with whale or jail.
Trial on the other hand would be two syllable rhyming with vial.
What if you pronounce whale and jail “while” and “Jile”?
Well, technically it’s more likely prawns that they would throw on the barbie.
I am from CT in the US and everyone I have ever heard say trail or trail prounce them as you do (bolded mine.) I have never heard troll for trail or trial.
Could be Cockney.
More likely New Zealand Graham Norton's reaction to the New Zealand accent - YouTube
It wasn’t an accusation of trolling, it was an example of making up stupid shit and claiming foreigners really talk that way. Unsurprisingly the Americans who missed the glaringly obvious clue in my word choice felt obliged to tell me that Americans don’t really talk that way. O RLY?
Well, I snickered. And I haven’t finished my first cuppa joe yet. I was going to point out that people were being whooshed, but you’ve done that already.
In our defence though, I have to say that to American ears many times ‘ay’ and in ‘hay’ sounds like ‘I’ as in ‘eye’ when pronounced by an Australian. Hence the joke about the difference between a buffalo and a bison. (Yew cahn’t wash yer fice in a buffalo!') A counterexample is the Australian pronunciation of ‘trail’ in Men At Work’s Down Under, where ‘trail’ is definitely not pronounced like ‘trial’. I reckoned it was a regional thing.
Accents are often masked in songs.
It actually depends on the accent a person has. Some has a good diction, the softer way of pronouncing words while some gives emphasis to every syllable, making the pronunciation differ. We may compare how a American speaks from that of the European and Asian.