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MrGuedes Posted 13 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation
Seven, eight, "niner"?!
Hello! I have a question.
I have recently watched a video where I found something strange... Here's the link:
This strange thing is that the actors seem to be pronouncing the word nine as ['na?n?] (as if it were written niner), instead of just ['na?n], which is how I've been taught.
For example, at 19:00, the controller seems to be saying: "Express seven zero five, fly heading zero niner five, direct to Memphis." Right after that, the pilot repeat the instruction to say the understood, saying correctly: "Zero nine five, direct to Memphis." This is strange...
But it's not the only time it happens... At 20:36, another controller asks the first to request the pilot to tune into a certain frequency, and he says: "Put him on one one niner point one.", once again with this strange pronunciation. At 22:37, the first controller talks to the pilot about that, and also pronounces nine as if it were niner.
Later, at 31:13, he controller says the pilot is "clear to land on runway niner."
Why could this be?
I had also recently discovered this feature present in some English accents, known as the "intrusive R". I had read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R#Intrusive_R And there, I discovered that some non-rhotic speakers add the sound [?] between two words, if the first one ends in either of the sounds /?/, /??/, /??/, and /??/, and the second begins with any vowel sound. This is irrelevant here. But I also saw in this page that some rhotic speakers go even further, by adding the sound [?] after the vowel sounds described above, even if the next word doesn't begin with another vowel. The article says: "An example is president http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush (who is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texan_English) speaking to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA director Michael Brown in 2005 – 'The FEMA-R directors's working 24/7'." I was wondering: "Could this be it?" Could this actually be the explanation?
I thought so, until I reached the moment 31:33 on the video. At that point, the narrator uses the same strange pronunciation, but adapted to his non-rhoticism. The narrator is British (a Received Pronunciation speaker), and thus he doesn't pronounce the Rs in the words, unless they are followed by another vowel sound, just like me. Therefore, he would never pronounce it ['na?n?]. Me neither. But, at this point in the video, he still adds that schwa sound (the sound [?]) to the word nine, suggesting that an R is actually there at the end of the word (once again, as if it were written niner).
OK. After all this, I finish with the question I've announced in the beginning. Why does this happen? There is no R in the word nine, is there? Why, then, would they pronounce it? Why would even a British speaker do the same thing?
Thank you in advance for any reply!
Oh! And, by the way, I'm sorry for this long post... It's probably the longest one I've ever written... I'm sorry if I've bothered anyone with this...
I have recently watched a video where I found something strange... Here's the link:
This strange thing is that the actors seem to be pronouncing the word nine as ['na?n?] (as if it were written niner), instead of just ['na?n], which is how I've been taught.
For example, at 19:00, the controller seems to be saying: "Express seven zero five, fly heading zero niner five, direct to Memphis." Right after that, the pilot repeat the instruction to say the understood, saying correctly: "Zero nine five, direct to Memphis." This is strange...
But it's not the only time it happens... At 20:36, another controller asks the first to request the pilot to tune into a certain frequency, and he says: "Put him on one one niner point one.", once again with this strange pronunciation. At 22:37, the first controller talks to the pilot about that, and also pronounces nine as if it were niner.
Later, at 31:13, he controller says the pilot is "clear to land on runway niner."
Why could this be?
I had also recently discovered this feature present in some English accents, known as the "intrusive R". I had read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R#Intrusive_R And there, I discovered that some non-rhotic speakers add the sound [?] between two words, if the first one ends in either of the sounds /?/, /??/, /??/, and /??/, and the second begins with any vowel sound. This is irrelevant here. But I also saw in this page that some rhotic speakers go even further, by adding the sound [?] after the vowel sounds described above, even if the next word doesn't begin with another vowel. The article says: "An example is president http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush (who is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texan_English) speaking to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA director Michael Brown in 2005 – 'The FEMA-R directors's working 24/7'." I was wondering: "Could this be it?" Could this actually be the explanation?
I thought so, until I reached the moment 31:33 on the video. At that point, the narrator uses the same strange pronunciation, but adapted to his non-rhoticism. The narrator is British (a Received Pronunciation speaker), and thus he doesn't pronounce the Rs in the words, unless they are followed by another vowel sound, just like me. Therefore, he would never pronounce it ['na?n?]. Me neither. But, at this point in the video, he still adds that schwa sound (the sound [?]) to the word nine, suggesting that an R is actually there at the end of the word (once again, as if it were written niner).
OK. After all this, I finish with the question I've announced in the beginning. Why does this happen? There is no R in the word nine, is there? Why, then, would they pronounce it? Why would even a British speaker do the same thing?
Thank you in advance for any reply!
Oh! And, by the way, I'm sorry for this long post... It's probably the longest one I've ever written... I'm sorry if I've bothered anyone with this...
Top answer
n], This is standard military pronunciation: it is done for clarity. MrGuedes I had also recently discovered this feature present in some English accents, known as the "intrusive R". I This is a different, unrelated phenomenon.
- n], This is standard military pronunciation: it is done for clarity.
- MrGuedes I had also recently discovered this feature present in some English accents, known as the "intrusive R".
- I This is a different, unrelated phenomenon.
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3 Answers
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MrGuedesThis strange thing is that the actors seem to be pronouncing the word nine as ['na?n?] (as if it were written niner), instead of just ['na?n],This is standard military pronunciation: it is done for clarity.
MrGuedesI had also recently discovered this feature present in some English accents, known as the "intrusive R". I
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Oh! Clarity! Well, I have to say I didn't expect that. But, yes, it makes sense. Miscommunications over a radio can be terribly disastrous. OK, thank you, enoon and Mister Micawber!
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