Right now, Wikipedia gives the pronunciation of Sirius as /ˈsɪriəs/, but in the past I've seen editors insist on /ˈsɪəriəs/. I take this to mean that it should sound like seer, which I at least pronounce with two syllables, but I don't pronounce Sirius like that.
The question was brought to my mind again by a question about pronunciations of Ouroboros, giving one variant as /jʊərɵˈbɒrəs/, again with a (to me) spurious schwa between a lax high vowel and a following /r/.
Is it a dialect difference that these look wrong to me? Or am I deaf to a sound that exists also in my own dialect (edumacated General American) because my theory says it's not there?
How would these words sound different without the schwa?
In dialects that require a schwa here, does it apply to all vowels?
No comments:
Post a Comment