shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 I've been saying peeeenk and pin-k all day long. So here's how I really say it: pink is a long e with an ever-so-fleeting short i sound before the k. It's kind of like the vowel sound does a quick drop into the k. However, both pronunciations (my way and the weird way :D ) are almost identical. Are any of you pin-k folks willing to record yourself and post a link here? You could even do it on forvo and link to it here. Please! I'm dying to dissect your accent! :) I have absolutely no idea why all this is so fascinating to me, but it is. Thanks for playing. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I just asked DH (grew up near Philly), and he also says it with a short i. His opinion is that peenk sounds Canadian, LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeeMommy Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I said other - it is not quite a long "e" sound as in peek, nor is it quite a short "i" sound as in pin. To me, pin and pink sound slightly different. I've lived all my life in suburban IL. Now that I've spent a good five minutes muttering "pink, pin...peeeeennnk, pihn...pihnk...peenk...." I think I say it something like that. It's not quite a short I, not quite a long e sound. Don't know exactly what kind of an accent I have, if any. Grew up in Maryland, spent about 12 years in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1.5 in Arizona, and now about 7.5 in Minnesota. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Absolutely this happens, and plays a significant role in young children's ability to pick up a native-sounding accent in a foreign language where many adults cannot. Our brains actually lose the ability to hear and differentiate between speech sounds that they are not exposed to. I think that the success of British actors playing Americans in movies comes down to this - the opposite happens less often. Most Brits are exposed to a variety of American accents early and frequently (from Disney onwards) so there is more phonetic awareness. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Long e. I'm from OK but have lived in several states. I've never heard it pronounced any other way. I now live in a very transient area made up of people from all over, and it's still always a long e. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 short i. Although to many of you it might sound like I'm saying short u :-) We eat Fush and Chups here in the antipodes. I was wondering about that but it sounds like a short I to me. Of course if I was in austrailia I might say peenk to go with the feesh and cheeps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EthiopianFood Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I've been saying peeeenk and pin-k all day long. So here's how I really say it: pink is a long e with an ever-so-fleeting short i sound before the k. It's kind of like the vowel sound does a quick drop into the k. However, both pronunciations (my way and the weird way :D ) are almost identical. Are any of you pin-k folks willing to record yourself and post a link here? You could even do it on forvo and link to it here. Please! I'm dying to dissect your accent! :) I have absolutely no idea why all this is so fascinating to me, but it is. Thanks for playing. :) You actually did it!! :smilielol5: You have an absolutely adorable voice, but yes, you are saying the word wrong! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I've been saying peeeenk and pin-k all day long. So here's how I really say it: pink is a long e with an ever-so-fleeting short i sound before the k. It's kind of like the vowel sound does a quick drop into the k. However, both pronunciations (my way and the weird way :D ) are almost identical. Are any of you pin-k folks willing to record yourself and post a link here? You could even do it on forvo and link to it here. Please! I'm dying to dissect your accent! :) I have absolutely no idea why all this is so fascinating to me, but it is. Thanks for playing. :) I listened to your recording and it sounds like you are saying peek like in peek-a-boo not pink at all. Totally saying it wrong lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenmama2 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Definitely shot i. Long e would be a weird american thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EthiopianFood Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Definitely shot i. Long e would be a weird american thing. By which I'm sure you mean "Americans who are weird!" ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I think that the success of British actors playing Americans in movies comes down to this - the opposite happens less often. Most Brits are exposed to a variety of American accents early and frequently (from Disney onwards) so there is more phonetic awareness. Oh, you don't think our sense of world supremacy causes us to filter out other people's ways of talking as merely wrong? Hmm. Anyway I hear people all the time who talk differently than I do. The regional accent where I live is not how I talk or how I grew up. My kids comment on accents all the time, and regularly imitate others' accents. My kids are also bilingual, though. I wonder about people who grow up culturally multi-dialect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Short i in all those words, same as sin or since or signal. See-nk sounds really Southern to my ears. I don't draw it out, despite being called a long sound. I think we should ALL record ourselves! I cannot imagine anyone saying they're thin+king about something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Oh, you don't think our sense of world supremacy causes us to filter out other people's ways of talking as merely wrong? Hmm. Anyway I hear people all the time who talk differently than I do. The regional accent where I live is not how I talk or how I grew up. My kids comment on accents all the time, and regularly imitate others' accents. My kids are also bilingual, though. I wonder about people who grow up culturally multi-dialect. I wonder about the early years though. Most of us hear many accents as adults, but the pp was talking about how our childhood ability to distinguish sounds is lost early if we don't hear lots of accents/languages at that point, never to return in adulthood. I remember trying to get a Chinese student to hear the difference between 'smile' and 'smell'. He just couldn't hear it because the combination of sounds was too foreign to him. I think bilingualism is a big help: certainly my two boys, who learned a foreign language early and were surrounded by different accents from birth, have a pretty good ear. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I wonder about the early years though. Most of us hear many accents as adults, but the pp was talking about how our childhood ability to distinguish sounds is lost early if we don't hear lots of accents/languages at that point, never to return in adulthood. I remember trying to get a Chinese student to hear the difference between 'smile' and 'smell'. He just couldn't hear it because the combination of sounds was too foreign to him. I think bilingualism is a big help: certainly my two boys, who learned a foreign language early and were surrounded by different accents from birth, have a pretty good ear. I play this game (or variations) with my husband periodically, to my own great amusement. However, he has his revenge: there are such similar words in his language that I cannot tell any sort of difference between, or if I can, I certainly cannot pronounce. But seriously I was thinking....does think really sound like thin+k, the way you say it? I listened to this http://dictionary.re...browse/pink?s=t and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/think?s=t and it sounds like how I talk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 You actually did it!! :smilielol5: You have an absolutely adorable voice, but yes, you are saying the word wrong! LOL Heck yeah, I actually did it! Glad my sick voice is adorable. I think it just sounds hacky. But, enough of me. Go to forvo. Create account. Say pin-k. Satisfy my curiosity. Thank you. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 I listened to your recording and it sounds like you are saying peek like in peek-a-boo not pink at all. Totally saying it wrong lol Go. Record. I must hear this pin-k with my own ears. Y'all are rocking my phonetic worldview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 People pronounce it with a long e? How is this? I have never heard that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Oh, you don't think our sense of world supremacy causes us to filter out other people's ways of talking as merely wrong? Hmm. Anyway I hear people all the time who talk differently than I do. The regional accent where I live is not how I talk or how I grew up. My kids comment on accents all the time, and regularly imitate others' accents. My kids are also bilingual, though. I wonder about people who grow up culturally multi-dialect. Here's an article the discusses the development of selective speech sound discrimination in monolingual and bilingual babies. I suspect that what happens with words is different-but-related. Obviously native English speakers are capable of hearing both the short i and long e sounds, but when we hear familiar words we really don't process the individual sounds--rather, we process the word as a single unit, and so in most cases we will not discriminate between different pronunciations but will simply hear the word the way it is encoded in our brains; at least, that is what we do when the person we are listening to speaks with an accent that is fairly similar to our own. If the accent is significantly different, I would guess that we engage more analytical parts of our brain to help out. I know when I am listening to someone with what I perceive as a strong accent I have to work harder to understand what they are saying. I had this experience recently during a phone conversation with a man from Scotland--I could make out what he was saying, but the mental effort required was significantly higher than that required in a conversation with someone whose accent is more familiar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 The normal, dictionary pronunciation--like ping-k. I have never in my life heard anyone say pin-k or in-k with a short i, so I suspect people are just describing the sound differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 never heard of pink with a short i. Or blink or any of the other words mentioned. From Louisiana but I"ve traveled all over the US and have never heard that before. pink, blink, wink, sink, ink, rink, ring, bling, bing, all the same. In fact our phonics (K12) teaches "ink" as a single sound, not separate as a short i would be, at least that is how I'm seeing it. "ink" 'ank", and "unk" are taught all together. using short i would seem very awkward to me. But saying the word "ask" is awkward to me too. We say "axe' :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Okay. I dug out my old Fonetica y Fonologia book. Yes, it is in Spanish. Yes, it's been awhile. Lucky for me it has pictures. ;) When you say the "i" in pink, where is your tongue positioned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Okay. I dug out my old Fonetica y Fonologia book. Yes, it is in Spanish. Yes, it's been awhile. Lucky for me it has pictures. ;) When you say the "i" in pink, where is your tongue positioned? Tongue position is the same for both (high, resting against my top teeth). The difference is in the inside of my mouth. Long e is wider, short i my jaw drops down a tiny bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Pink, pin, and pig have the exact same short i sound. I grew up in New England. pink---- peenk pin----pee-uhn (the same way I pronounce "pen" btw ;) ) pig----pihg ink---eenk Born and raised in NC ( I say PEE-khan for "pecan," too :D ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 When you say the "i" in pink, where is your tongue positioned? Same place as the i in pig. When I say "pink pig" my tongue is in the same place for both vowels. Whereas for "Peter Pig" my tongue is in a different place. I can say "peenk pig" with my tongue in same place as the long e in Peter, but it sounds totally weird to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 pink---- peenk pin----pee-uhn (the same way I pronounce "pen" btw ;) ) pig----pihg ink---eenk Born and raised in NC ( I say PEE-khan for "pecan," too :D ) You had to go there, didn't you? :D 1. Pecan is p'KAHN (and now I want to break my sugar fast and binge on p'KAHN pie. sigh.) 2. While we're at it, almond is ALLmund (3rd sound of a), not short a AHmund. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I listened to sounds on dictionary.com, and I call the sound a long ee, not a short i. The way the speaker pronounces it is just how I do. I have neither a brogue nor a drawl. I suspect we are all saying it the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 People pronounce it with a long e? How is this? I have never heard that. Like this. (Click on the audio.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/p/pink0001.wav Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Last week I was watching a photography course and the teacher was talking about Mirrors alot in one section,it was making me cringe that he said Meer constantly rather than Mirror. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I listened to sounds on dictionary.com, and I call the sound a long ee, not a short i. The way the speaker pronounces it is just how I do. I have neither a brogue nor a drawl. I suspect we are all saying it the same. I would have agreed with you, but Same place as the i in pig. When I say "pink pig" my tongue is in the same place for both vowels. Whereas for "Peter Pig" my tongue is in a different place. I can say "peenk pig" with my tongue in same place as the long e in Peter, but it sounds totally weird to me. because of this, I would say it is our ears hearing what they expect to hear. All the recordings sound clearly like long e to me, too. When I say pink, my tongue is in a neutral position - long e sound. Short i and long e are both anterior, both have neutral lip positions. The difference is that for short i the tongue is going to be raised. It appears that some people are saying the short i sound. Weird as that is. ;) Disclaimer: Anyone who has had more than one class on this (in a foreign language more than 12 years ago) feel free to correct me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I would have agreed with you, but because of this, I would say it is our ears hearing what they expect to hear. All the recordings sound clearly like long e to me, too. When I say pink, my tongue is in a neutral position - long e sound. Short i and long e are both anterior, both have neutral lip positions. The difference is that for short i the tongue is going to be raised. It appears that some people are saying the short i sound. Weird as that is. ;) Disclaimer: Anyone who has had more than one class on this (in a foreign language more than 12 years ago) feel free to correct me. ETA: I'm using terms from my book and they aren't quite right because the Spanish and English vowels are not pronounced the same way. Think of the tongue position as a matter of degrees. Don't try to go by my description. Try out different words together like pink pig and pink Pete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I find it hard to believe anyone really says "pink" with a short "i." I really am. Same with "ink." How about drink? Fink? Sink? Wink? Jinx? Kink? Link? Mink? You say "sink" as sin + k?! I think (not thinnnnnnk) people don't really pronounce those words the way they claim to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I think (not thinnnnnnk) people don't really pronounce those words the way they claim to. exactly. All those that think they are saying it with a long e are not actually doing so. they are saying it with the short i Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trlt Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I say it with long e. I've lived in many different states and I have never heard anyone use the short i when saying any of the mentioned words!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 exactly. All those that think they are saying it with a long e are not actually doing so. they are saying it with the short i So you really hear "in" (as in din, gin, pin, bin, and skin) in the link to Merriam-Webster I posted above? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 This is new to me. I had no idea there could be another way to pronounce it. Definitely short i here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 So you really hear "in" (as in din, pin, and skin) in the link to Merriam-Webster I posted above? Oh, I hear the "ee" sound in the link above, but that is not how I personally pronounce the word. I pronounce it with a short i, the same as pin, pig, pick, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I think (not thinnnnnnk) people don't really pronounce those words the way they claim to. :confused1: When I say "pink" (or think or stink or wink or link or ink.....) normally, my mouth is in the same position and produces the same sound as when I say "pig." It's definitely short i. I think it's more likely that we hear the words the way we are coded to hear them. I remember my cousins saying "steenk" for "stink" and "beg" for "bag," which drove me crazy. But they couldn't hear the difference. Aside from my cousins (and my uncle) I've never noticed anyone saying "steenk/peenk" but looking at the number of people on this forum who use the long e sound, I'll bet I've heard a fair number of people saying it that way without my noticing. Once a group of Chinese students was trying to teach me to say ""dragon" in Chinese. They were laughing at me because I literally could not hear one of the sounds I was supposed to be making. They were using the sounds, I just couldn't hear it until they draaaaggged it out, and even then I only kind of got it and still couldn't say it properly. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry gardens Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I've come out of lurking for this. Here's how The Electric Company says it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrOhDNvJ_BM Now that's the way I pronounce "pink". I wonder how many people think they are hearing a short i, long ee or something in between? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFJ in IL Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Never have I heard anyone use a long e sound in these words. All a short i for me...born and raised in IL. I am going to walk around saying peenk to myself all day :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Now that's the way I pronounce "pink". I wonder how many people think they are hearing a short i, long ee or something in between? This is how I say it and how I've always heard it—without exception. I really am curious whether others hear that same video differently than I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I say it closer to p /EE/ /ng/ k There's audio of 'pink' on this page and on this. I can hear the short /i/ in both of these. Like this. (Click on the audio.) This is clearly the /ee/ version. In the Electric Company video, the dude seems to say the /i/ for all his sections but when they combine, some of them sound /ee/-ish. (Not all of them.) I'm a middle-of-the-continental-US person. (My mother 'w /or/ shes' (washes) her clothes. She also believes the President lives in W /or/ shington D.C.) The /ng/ sound messes up a lot of words and we have to 'think to spell' them. My tongue is just touching my bottom teeth when I say the /i/ in pink. Same place for pig. Flat along the bottom of my mouth. (My oldest dd thinks I'm wasting way too much time listening to different people say 'pink' on the internet.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I've been saying peeeenk and pin-k all day long. So here's how I really say it: pink is a long e with an ever-so-fleeting short i sound before the k. It's kind of like the vowel sound does a quick drop into the k. However, both pronunciations (my way and the weird way :D ) are almost identical. Are any of you pin-k folks willing to record yourself and post a link here? You could even do it on forvo and link to it here. Please! I'm dying to dissect your accent! :) I have absolutely no idea why all this is so fascinating to me, but it is. Thanks for playing. :) I listened to all the others and I listened to you. You sound like you are saying long e, but I hear short i in all the others. Do you hear yourself as the same as all the others? This is really fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 So you really hear "in" (as in din, gin, pin, bin, and skin) in the link to Merriam-Webster I posted above? I hear ing like in in ping, ding, bing. Short i but with a g when I hear the word pink or say it. I didn't listen to the link yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 :confused1: When I say "pink" (or think or stink or wink or link or ink.....) normally, my mouth is in the same position and produces the same sound as when I say "pig." It's definitely short i. I think it's more likely that we hear the words the way we are coded to hear them. I remember my cousins saying "steenk" for "stink" and "beg" for "bag," which drove me crazy. But they couldn't hear the difference. Aside from my cousins (and my uncle) I've never noticed anyone saying "steenk/peenk" but looking at the number of people on this forum who use the long e sound, I'll bet I've heard a fair number of people saying it that way without my noticing. Once a group of Chinese students was trying to teach me to say ""dragon" in Chinese. They were laughing at me because I literally could not hear one of the sounds I was supposed to be making. They were using the sounds, I just couldn't hear it until they draaaaggged it out, and even then I only kind of got it and still couldn't say it properly. Cat That reminds me of a chinese student I had in afterschool care. He and his buddy thought I was the funniest grown up around because I could not pronounce the words they were trying to teach me. I was trying to say Ma to mean mother, and apparently was saying Ma to mean horse. I could not alter the inflection properly. In a language like mandarin where 1 word has 5 different meanings based on accent/inflection that is a problem. Nothing like calling your mother a horse to get you in trouble :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I hear ing like in in ping, ding, bing. Short i but with a g We seem to say it the same way; we're just defining "short i" differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 We seem to say it the same way; we're just defining "short i" differently. Okay I recorded how I say it on forvo. Hate my voice, but there it is. Tell me what you are hearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I added a recording, too, and you all sound like long e to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Like this. (Click on the audio.) That is definitely different than how I say it. I can hear the long ee when that lady says peenk. With the two that Laura linked I can hear the short i. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Okay I recorded how I say it on forvo. Hate my voice, but there it is. Tell me what you are hearing. I hear the short i :) Thank you! Wonder if the people at forvo are wondering where there's a sudden interest in the English pronunciation of pink... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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