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CharmYou Posted 12 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

How do you pronounce family?

How do you pronounce the word family? I know it's supposed to be pronounced as /'fæm?li/, but too often I hear something like /'fem?li/ instead. Which do you think is more proper? /'fæm?li/ with /æ/ or /'fem?li/ with /e/?


Here's a clip from a native speaker who pronounces /'fæm?li/ as /'fem?li/.


To my Chinese ears, what she said is /'fem?li/, more like the vowel in air, instead of /'fæm?li/ with the /æ/ as in apple vowel.
  

Top answer

To my ear, these represent no more than personal inflection. When I first opened this question, I assumed it would be about the pronunciation of the middle syllable, which is schwa, at best. I think most natives pronounce it without the schwa, even, making it strictly a two-syllable word.

— Philip

  • To my ear, these represent no more than personal inflection.
  • When I first opened this question, I assumed it would be about the pronunciation of the middle syllable, which is schwa, at best.
  • I think most natives pronounce it without the schwa, even, making it strictly a two-syllable word.
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6 Answers
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To my ear, these represent no more than personal inflection. When I first opened this question, I assumed it would be about the pronunciation of the middle syllable, which is schwa, at best. I think most natives pronounce it without the schwa, even, making it strictly a two-syllable word.
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CharmYouWhich do you think is more proper? /'fæm?li/ with /æ/ or /'fem?li/ with /e/?
/'fæm?li/ with /æ/. This is definitely the "more proper" version.

The native speaker you quoted also nasalizes the /e/, probably because of the following /m/. She seems to have the accent of a California "Valley Girl". I don't think a learner of English should imit
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CalifJimprobably because of the following /m/
Thanks for pointing this out. There're many words like "family" where a /e/ is used to replace /æ/. After you pointing out the /m/, I guess all /æm/ can often be pronounced as /e?m/. For example, I often hear the word "example" pronounced as /?g'zempl?/ instead of /?g'zæmpl?/, and my foreign teachers (both a boy a
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CharmYouThere're many words like "family" which a /e/ is used to replace /æ/. After you pointing out the /m/, I guess all /æm/ can often be pronounced as /e?m/. For example, I often hear the word "example" pronounced as /?g'zempl?/ instead of /?g'zæmpl?/, and my foreign teachers (both a boy and a girl) from the USA often pronounce grammar as /'grem?/ instead of /'græm?/.
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An interesting question indeed. Thanks for it and all the answers.
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