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