I’ve been noticing something about the letter “e” that I find a little perplexing. In some cases it’s becoming an “i.”
I first noticed this several years ago, when a woman on tv was talking about weaning . . . except to my ears she was saying “winning.” Then I started noticing other people doing it, more and more often.
Dealers have become dillers.
Feelings have become fillings.
Leaders have become lidders.
Senators have become sinnators.
And anything real has become rill.
CNN’s Brooke Baldwin does it a lot, though not consistently.
Ah, you mean a pronunciation shift, not the actual elimination of the letter. Anyway, I’ve heard it too, and yes, it is regional, although more prevalent among the lesser educated. I consider it lazy speak.
I expect someone to enter the thread at some point to defend the, in my opinion, worrisome, quickening, and spreading devolution in pronunciation of English language words into the lowest common regional affectation, which will simply serve to make my point above.
SEEnators? Is that really how it is supposed to be pronounced? I have never heard it any other way except “SINators”.
And what you’re describing is the difference between a long e and a short e. A short e and a short i sound very similar. I have a short e in my last name. It sounds like Nin-o.
dictionary.com pronounces senator with a short e and offers no other alternate pronounciation. Are you sure you can hear the difference between a short i and a short e?
As far as I’m aware, but someone please feel free to correct me, Kiwis don’t pronounce words with a long e sound as a short i, but do pronounce words containing a short e as the short i. So a Kiwi will pronounce the word ‘seeks’ as ‘sēks’, retaining the long double e sound, but will pronounce the word ‘sex’ as ‘sĭks’.
Oh boy. Here we go again. So, you’re saying you hear no difference between the words ‘sin’ and ‘sen’, or ‘pin’ and ‘pen’? They sound exactly the same to you?
They also provide audible pronunciations for the words they define. For example, take a listen to the words ‘six’ and ‘sex’. Please report back and tell me whether or not you hear the difference.
Hardly a difference. Especially when spoken in a sentence. If someone is just saying “pen, pin, pen, pin, pen, pin” then sure I can hear the difference. But if the word pen is in the the middle of a sentence, it is going to sound just like pin. Unless the distinction was some kind of pet peeve of mine so that it stands out everytime someone speaks.
There is a much bigger difference between changing a long e into a short i than changing a short e into a short i. “Dealers” pronounced “Dillers” is a big change. “Senators” pronounced “Sinators”, not so much. “Senators” was at the bottom of a long list of long e words. My point was that it shouldn’t even be on that list, because it is not as big of a pronounciation shift as the rest of them.
The point of the thread is as you say, the changing pronunciation of words containing a long e sound to that of a short i, the prevalence of which is spreading. Be clear, however. The e sound in the word ‘senators’ is short, not long, so, to answer your earlier question, no, it is not pronounced ‘SEE-neh-tor’, it is pronounced 'SEH-neh-tor.
Again, it is probably a regionalism, as the words ‘pin’ and ‘pen’ are not in any way homonyms in my part of the world. They have distinct pronunciations, so if someone says “I saw a pen on the sidewalk and picked it up” there would be no confusion as to whether the speaker meant a pen or a pin.
Do you carefully think about how to pronounce every syllable you speak, even in conversation?
That’s not usual. Most people just talk. Because there’s not really any such thing as “lazy speak”. People talk the way they learned to, from the people around them. Which, I imagine, is exactly the same way you talk.
I had the additional advantage of not being burdened with a contemporary US education system that puts less emphasis on the foundations of effective communication, such as writing, grammar, spelling, speaking, and yes, pronunciation, than it should. I know phonemes/phonics used to be taught in the US. When did that stop?
I agree! I’m sick of this lazy speech. People need to stop dropping letters all over the place. Silent E? I don’t think so! If namE was good enough for Chaucer, it’s good enough for me.
Onomatapoeia, I’d be very interested in why you think your manner of pronunciation is The Manner of Pronunciation.
edit: Your name has 4 consonants and 8 vowels. That’s a sickening imbalance. No wonder people don’t speak correctly. You’re hoarding all the vowels.
So, you’re saying you hear no difference between the words ‘sin’ and ‘sen’, or ‘pin’ and ‘pen’? They sound exactly the same to you?