Re: alternative pronunciations of 'naive'

On Jan 28, 2:31 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <5hz9px49c6mx$.194hn2knae153$....@xxxxxxxxxx>,
 "Brian M. Scott" <b.sc...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:26:49 -0500, Nathan Sanders
<nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in sci.lang:

They list two pronunciations that, following their
transcription, come out roughly as [nA.iv] and [naI.iv].
I don't think I've ever heard a native speaker (of
English!) use the former, but then again, the difference
is so subtle that I'm not sure I'd notice if I weren't
specifically listening for it.

I don't think that I've ever heard a native speaker of
English say anything but [nA'i:v] or similar.

That pronunciation just sounds odd to me, like a London chav saying
"not Eve".  

Only if you interpret the IPA stress mark as a glottal!

I definitely have a central, not back, vowel in the first
syllable, and a very glide-like transition between the two syllables,
more like [najiv].

As with Brian, the [j] transition seems unlikely to me. Maybe because
it seems so French because of the dieresis.

But, the word is rare enough that, if other people do say it with a
back [A] and no third vocoid transition, I wouldn't have noticed.
.

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