[oʊrɪgɪn] [oʊrɪgan] [oʊrɪgən]
Which one is it?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Pronunciation: Oregon
I need some backup. At my place of work we call people all over the country, and a caller was speaking with a prospect from Oregon. After the call, we had a heated debate as to how to pronounce the name of this state. Other callers joined in, and we never arrived at a definitive conclusion.
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I'd like to propose a few pronunciations, depending on context. The first one isn't even one you proposed.
ReplyDelete1. When I pronounce it in a sentence aloud, I say [oʊrəgɪn]. "I am going to Oregon." This is in rapid speech, with a stress pattern dictating an unstressed middle syllable.
2. However, when I say it in isolation, I say [oʊrɪgən].
3. Finally, when I say the phrase "Oregon Trail" it becomes [oʊrɪgən].
I'm assuming this has a great deal to do with stress and intonation. I'm assuming that the underlying form is [oʊrɪgɪn] and the vowels change depending on context. Any other hypotheses? Anyone?
By the way, Spenser, congratulations on Korea!
It's [oʊrəgɪn]. And that's that.
ReplyDeletei actually don't pronounce it with the schwa [oʊrgɪn]. my mom, though...oh man...she pronounces it [oʊrgan].
ReplyDeleteI would have to argue against [ɪ] in the middle and advocate schwa.
I just drove myself up the wall saying 'Oregon' about 50 times in 3 different ways to myself. I am so effing glad acoustic/articulatory is done.
Luckily I don't have to worry about a vowel in the middle there...I don't say one! I'm interested in the last "syllable" there though what everyone's saying is a lax [I] or a schwa. I would transcribe that as a syllabic [n], which usually has a little bar underneath it. I would say the word, ['oʊrgn], with the syllabic n diacritic added.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if people in California and Washington hate having to drive through Oregon to get to another cool state...