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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Pronunciation of "Always"

How do you pronounce the word "always"? I've noticed that most Northwesterners pronounce it "ahweez", while most people that I've met from California and Arizona tended to use a different vowel sound-it sounded to me something like [ o ], but I'm not exactly sure-perhaps it was simply more rounded than the vowel I use. Is there an isogloss for these two pronunciations? Are there any other pronunciations?
  

Top answer

I pronounce the 1 st syllable with the short ‘o’ /Z/ as the ‘o’ in ‘rock’, the long ‘a’ sound /eI / as in ‘day’ for the 2 nd syllable and the’s’ as a voiced sound /Z/. My dictionary does indicate there’re at least 4 different ways to pronounce this word. The ‘o’ sound can be either /Z/ or the long /]+/ as the ‘a’ in ‘all.

— Buddhaheart

  • I pronounce the 1 st syllable with the short ‘o’ /Z/ as the ‘o’ in ‘rock’, the long ‘a’ sound /eI / as in ‘day’ for the 2 nd syllable and the’s’ as a voiced sound /Z/.
  • My dictionary does indicate there’re at least 4 different ways to pronounce this word.
  • The ‘o’ sound can be either /Z/ or the long /]+/ as the ‘a’ in ‘all.
  • ‘-ay-’ may be the long ‘a’ or the short ‘i’ /I/ but not the long ‘ee’ as indicated by you.
  • MW online does give a long ‘e’ sound and a schwa sound for ‘ay’ as variants to the long ‘a’.
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4 Answers
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I pronounce the 1st syllable with the short ‘o’ /Z/ as the ‘o’ in ‘rock’, the long ‘a’ sound /eI / as in ‘day’ for the 2nd syllable and the’s’ as a voiced sound /Z/.

My dictionary does indicate there’re at least 4 different ways to pronounce this word. The ‘o’ sound can be either /Z/ or the long /]+/ as the ‘a’ in ‘all. ‘-ay-’ may be the long ‘a’ or the short ‘i’ /I/
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I say it something like "cow is" mushed together into one word (and without the "c", of course). But that's not exactly it. The first vowel is a little closer to the sound of "au" in "author": 'au-wizz' I guess. Sometimes a little bit of the "l" sound gets in there, but usually not.

CJ
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Always sounds like all-wayz or all-ways to me.
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all-ways. pronounced as it is written! Grew up in Princeton New Jersey with parents, thankfully, who insisted on enunciation.

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