LPD 2007 survey

J.C.Wells, 2008 03 05. Reported in LPD3.

 

In preparation for the new edition of Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, a new on-line pronunciation preference poll was conducted by the publishers, Pearson Longman, and the author in April-June 2007.

Responses were accepted only from those respondents who indicated their geographical origin as Britain (= England, Wales, Scotland and the Channel Islands, but not Ireland). The number of valid responses varied by question, but was in the range 800-825.

There were 30 items in the questionnaire: accept/except, adult, applicable, Asia, careless, contribute, debris, diphthong, dissect, during (initial consonant and stressed vowel), egotistic, electoral, H, homogeneous, hurricane, impious, kilometre, lamentable, liquorice, mischievous, necessarily, omega, poor, protester, tinnitus, tune, via, were, yours. As in previous questionnaires, each question was multiple-choice, asking which of two or more pronunciations the respondent preferred for the given word.

Overall percentages found

accept/except

same

7/13*

different

72/86*

adult

ˈæd-

84

-ˈdʌlt

16

applicable

ˈæp-

15

-ˈplɪk-

85

Asia

-ʃ-

36

-ʒ-

64

careless

-ləs

49/74**

-lɪs

15/27**

contribute

ˈkɒn-

41

-ˈtrɪb-

59

debris

ˈdeɪb-

83

-ˈbriː

17

diphthong

ˈdɪf-

39

ˈdɪp-

61

dissect

daɪ-

89

dɪ-

11

during

dʒ-

54

dj-

46

during

-ʊə-

76

-ɜː-/-ɔː-

23

egotistic

ˌiːɡ-

81

ˌeɡ-

19

electoral

-ˈlekt- 

83

-ˈtɔːr-

17

H

eɪtʃ

84

heɪtʃ

16

homogeneous

ˌhɒm-

 75

ˌhəʊm-

25

hurricane

-kən

40

-keɪn

60

impious

ˈɪmpiəs

47

ɪmˈpaɪəs

53

kilometre

ˈkɪl-

37

-ˈlɒm-

63

lamentable

ˈlæm-

 28

-ˈment-

72

liquorice, licorice

-ɪʃ

83

-ɪs

17

mischievous

ˈmɪs-

65

-ˈtʃiːvəs

15

 

 

 

-ˈtʃiːviəs

20

necessarily

ˈnes-

32

-ˈser- etc

68

omega

ˈəʊm-

52

 -ˈmVɡ-

48

poor

pɔː

74

pʊə

26

protester

ˈprəʊ-

31

-ˈtest-

69

tinnitus

ˈtɪnɪtəs

82

tɪˈnaɪtəs

18

tune

tʃuːn

54

tjuːn

44

via

vaɪə

88

viːə, vɪə

12

were

weə

 6

wɜː

94

yours

jɔːz

67/75*

jʊəz

23/25*

* eliminating those who say they vary

** eliminating those who voted for –les