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How do you pronounce pink?


  

283 members have voted

  1. 1. Pink?

    • short i
      131
    • long e
      146
    • Other, because some of y'all just can't commit ;-)
      6


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That's interesting. Do you hear a long e or short i sound in those pronunciations? They both sound the same to me (long e). I wonder if our accent affects how we interpret certain sounds.

 

 

They both sound (American accent) short 'i' to me. A British version would be more clipped. You might be onto something in your idea that we filter what we hear through our own accent. Try saying 'pink' with a Masterpiece Theatre accent and see what you get.

 

Laura

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Possibly one of the coolest sites ever for language nerds: Forvo (link goes to 5 people saying "pink" incl. 2 US, 1 UK and 1 Aus) ALL of them sound long e to me. What do YOU hear? I'm really fascinated with the idea that our speech might affect how we interpret sound. I think I might be on to something :)

 

 

They all sound like long e to me as well. I also say all "ing" words as eeeeng too though.

 

ok, so bean and binky . . . do they sound the same? not to me . . . bean is a long e . . binky is a short i . . . i agree the 'ng' sound is confusing the issue . . .

 

or even bean and bin . . . not the same sound, right?

 

 

Bean and binky would both have the same long e sound when I pronounce them.

 

Bean and bin would not. Bean has long e, but bin has short i.

 

The -nk and the -ng being attached to i changes the i's pronunciation to long e for me.

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Possibly one of the coolest sites ever for language nerds: Forvo (link goes to 5 people saying "pink" incl. 2 US, 1 UK and 1 Aus) ALL of them sound long e to me. What do YOU hear? I'm really fascinated with the idea that our speech might affect how we interpret sound. I think I might be on to something :)

 

 

'Bananaman' on that sounds like my pronunciation, which is a short 'i' to me.

 

Laura

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At first thought, I said long e, but after saying all the various words to myself, I'll have to go with a short i after all. But even then I think it's somewhere in between the two. My pink doesn't sound like bean or pin. I think I agree with whomever said the sound of the i is affected by the -nk with an implied -ing sound.

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Possibly one of the coolest sites ever for language nerds: Forvo (link goes to 5 people saying "pink" incl. 2 US, 1 UK and 1 Aus) ALL of them sound long e to me. What do YOU hear? I'm really fascinated with the idea that our speech might affect how we interpret sound. I think I might be on to something :)

 

The very first one sounds more like a long e. The rest sound like short i, although some were hard to hear.

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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?!

 

Yes, I do.

 

With regards to the -ing, when you say a word like seeing, do you say it in one syllable or two syllables that sound the same or two syllables that sound different? For me, the first part is long e sound, the second is short i, two distinct syllables.

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I am trying to figure this out. It is confusing to me. I have never heard sink sound anyway other than with a long e.

 

What about the -ing sound. I typed in railing to the freedictionary site that includes pronunciations. The marking for the ing is the same as the marking for pink (which is marked for pronunciation as pingk) but I hear a long e in railing just as I do in pink.

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I'm wondering if those of you that say pink has a short i also say that the y at the end of baby is a short i, like they use in WRTR.

 

To me it's all an e sound. just like if I said the name of the letter e, so a long sound.

 

Seeing is pronounced See-eeng two long e sounds.

 

 

Nope the y at the end of baby is long e, just like teh y at the end of my name

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This has me so perplexed that I woke my dh from his nap so that I could hear him pronounce things for me. :lol:

 

He was born in VA but lived in CA for awhile. I was born in Germany but have lived in VA 99% of my life. We both hear long e in -ink and -ing words. Normally I hear the differences in words easily. I have always pronounced the difference between pin and pen. But, I am at a loss for this one. I guess the southern thing has finally caught up with me :willy_nilly: :D

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I'm wondering if those of you that say pink has a short i also say that the y at the end of baby is a short i, like they use in WRTR.

 

To me it's all an e sound. just like if I said the name of the letter e, so a long sound.

 

Seeing is pronounced See-eeng two long e sounds.

 

 

Absolutely. That is how I have always heard it and said it.

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Logic of English, lesson 1 has pink using the "first sound of i" which is the short i, like igloo. Is this a real pronunciation for some people, or is it "spelling list" pronunciation? FWIW, we pronounce it with a long e sound, rhymes with sink or blink.

 

In English, ink is a unit pronounced with a long e and ing is also a unit pronounced with long e. At least, that's the official pronunciation in American English. I have no idea about other English speaking countries.

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That's the way the people here say it - "pank". I just figured it was a mountain thing because I'm from the South and never heard that before I moved here. I do love to hear it though. Makes me laugh (in a good way, of course) every time I hear it. I love regional accents. :D

 

She's born and raised in KY. People here have pretty southern accents and all assume I'm a northerner.

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i wonder if we dont really notice the difference - its a difference that has no meaning for our language so we probably dont even notice when someone says it the other way.

 

This is what I was thinking. We all think of it however we think of it (short i or long e), and that probably affects the way we hear it. I just can't believe that there is anyone in this transient country that hasn't ever heard the pronunciation different from their own. Uh uh. They're just hearing it the same way they say it. Right?

 

I'm from Utah and say it with long e, but I've watched TV all my life and have never--to my recognition--heard anyone pronounce it with a short i sound. But I'm pretty sure somebody, somewhere in television in my 32 years has said it that way.

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this post was put here just to introduce a bit of stupid humor to the op's day. Now she has all these women sitting in front of their monitors saying "pink...peenk...that's weird...pink...peenk?...ink, sink, wink, pink...peenk?" I've been used...

 

who cares, anyway? it is pronounced however you say it, and it's short i by the way.

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I'm wondering if those of you that say pink has a short i also say that the y at the end of baby is a short i, like they use in WRTR.

 

To me it's all an e sound. just like if I said the name of the letter e, so a long sound.

 

Seeing is pronounced See-eeng two long e sounds.

 

Baby ends with a long e. See-ing is how you pronounce seeing.

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Nope the y at the end of baby is long e, just like teh y at the end of my name

 

:iagree:

This is what I was thinking. We all think of it however we think of it (short i or long e), and that probably affects the way we hear it. I just can't believe that there is anyone in this transient country that hasn't ever heard the pronunciation different from their own. Uh uh. They're just hearing it the same way they say it. Right?

 

I'm from Utah and say it with long e, but I've watched TV all my life and have never--to my recognition--heard anyone pronounce it with a short i sound. But I'm pretty sure somebody, somewhere in television in my 32 years has said it that way.

 

Has anyone ever watched Pinky Dinky Doo? To me that was the short i, followed by long e sound for the y.

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I am from New Jersey and lived in Alaska and California. I never heard pink pronounced with a long E sound. I just assumed everyone said it with a short i like I learned. I never heard ing with a long E sound either. I am actually really really surprised by the poll results. I had no idea pink, sink or blink could be pronounced that way. I must have heard someone who used the long E pronunciation even if it wasn't my regional dialect but I never actually heard it that way to my ears.

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Yes, I do.

 

With regards to the -ing, when you say a word like seeing, do you say it in one syllable or two syllables that sound the same or two syllables that sound different? For me, the first part is long e sound, the second is short i, two distinct syllables.

My mouth makes two distinct moves for "see" then "ing".

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I pronounce it "peenk." I'm from Texas. It's also eenk, seenk, theenk. Most of the time.

 

I voted "other" because when I slip back into my Texas drawl (mainly around my mama's family), it is most appropriately pronounced "pank" (long a) like sank, tank. If you're a good Texan you can get two syllables out of it. "pay-ank" ;-)

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I, too, use a sound that sounds more like a long e than a short i for pink. I live in the PNW and have most of my life. I wouldn't say it's the same as the e's in green, but definitely not pin-k. I have a feeling we all pronounce it the same way (somewhere in between a short i and a long e), we just think we're clearly pronouncing it the one way or the other.

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Born and raised southern as well. Pink is "peenk", sink is "seenk", and think is "theenk". I had to ask my husband how my pronounciation for seeing comes out as I had a hard time figuring just how I say it without thinking about what I am saying. Apparently, in natural conversation I pronounce seeing as "see-eeng".

 

DH is a Texan and he uses the long e sound as well in all but seeing. Then it is "seee-ing" (long e-short i). Where his grandmother lives in west Texas, he has heard "pank" for pink.

 

Interesting thread!

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The vowel is the same. The 'n' has a bit of 'ng' in it because of the 'k'.

 

Fascinating. To me, not at all. That sounds very...flat or something to me. Makes me feel like I am saying "penk" or "pank" or something very weird. Every single one of these pronunciation threads on here weirds me out! I swear, I've never heard anyone say "pink" with a short "i." I have heard southerners say a pank-like thing, same as in "hi" and "bye."

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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?!

 

All short i. I was having a hard time believing people say it with long e. :D

 

LOL, I'll bet I'm not the only one sitting in front of the computer saying, "Pink. Peenk. Pink. Peenk. Piiiiink. Peeeeeenk."

 

I think shinyhappypeople is right, that we filter sounds according to what's familiar to us. We've run into this when discussing pronunciation with our exchange students. English has sounds that they have a very hard time hearing (short i is one of them, as a matter of fact), and their languages have sounds we have difficulty hearing.

 

Cat

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Possibly one of the coolest sites ever for language nerds: Forvo (link goes to 5 people saying "pink" incl. 2 US, 1 UK and 1 Aus) ALL of them sound long e to me. What do YOU hear? I'm really fascinated with the idea that our speech might affect how we interpret sound. I think I might be on to something :)

 

 

I definitely hear short i in those, which is how I pronounce it. Weird.

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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?!

 

 

Short i in all those words, same as sin or since or signal. See-nk sounds really Southern to my ears.

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I said it, and dh said it, and I really only hear a short i. It does sound like ping-k, but it's still a short i.

 

 

Kinda shows what I was saying above. That's how I say it, too "pingk" -- like in the Electric Company video above -- but I'd describe that as more like a long e than a short i. I think we're all saying it the somewhat similarly, we just describe it differently.

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All short i. I was having a hard time believing people say it with long e. :D

 

LOL, I'll bet I'm not the only one sitting in front of the computer saying, "Pink. Peenk. Pink. Peenk. Piiiiink. Peeeeeenk."

 

I think shinyhappypeople is right, that we filter sounds according to what's familiar to us. We've run into this when discussing pronunciation with our exchange students. English has sounds that they have a very hard time hearing (short i is one of them, as a matter of fact), and their languages have sounds we have difficulty hearing.

 

Cat

 

 

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. We end up processing the foreign sound as something more familiar, so when we try ti imitate we may be able to perfectly imitate the sound we "heard" but have it be a far cry from the original sound. Native Japanese speakers find it difficult to differentiate between our English L and R sounds-- to them, the words "right" and "light" sound the same. I'm sure we all do this on a word-by-word (rather than sound by sound) basis in normal speech--so whether your pink has a long e or short i sound, my brain will "hear" it as the long e sound I am familiar with.

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It isn't fully a long e sound, but very close. I'm always shocked when people say they pronounce "ink" in pink and "ing" in sing with a short i - In all my life I've never heard it that way, not in any of the thousands of movies or TV shows I've watched. It makes me want travel to other parts of the country and see it for myself :-)

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