How do you pronounce pink?

[shinyhappypeople]

OMG, over 150 posts about pink. I love the hive :001_wub:

[swellmomma]

 

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...

 

 

I wondered that too. When they see their hit counter it will have 700 for pink from the last 24 hours and suddenly all these new recordings.

 

Makes me think I should do bagel as well though, because my family makes fun of how I say it (family= my mom and sister)

[Crimson Wife]

Is there a way to add to Forvo without using Flash? The only webcam we have is on DD's iPad, and that can't run Flash.

[Unicorn.]

This is the first I heard that pink was supposed to be peenk,

drink dreenk,

think theenk,

 

and now I'm trying to theenk of a song that uses the word dreenk, but all I can come up with is:

 

bye, bye Miss American pie

...

and good ole boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye ...

 

but

 

I can't remember if they were saying dreenking or drinkin.

 

Lemme theenk about it some more.

 

 

They are sayin "dreenkin" :D Long e pink, ink, drink, think, do not sound like in, itch, ditch. pen and pin are identical in sound. TX born and raised. You Yankees are just weird! :D no offense or anything. (thing is also a long e sound...theeng)

[Parrothead]

I wondered that too. When they see their hit counter it will have 700 for pink from the last 24 hours and suddenly all these new recordings.

 

Makes me think I should do bagel as well though, because my family makes fun of how I say it (family= my mom and sister)

 

 

You say it like I do.

 

 

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...

 

 

I heard "peek" both times you said pink.

[MistyMountain]

I listened to the new recordings. I hear it with the short i sound in most except shinyhappy people I can hear the long E and maybe daffodil but that is more in between.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm hearing the "ee" people saying a short i for longer than I say it, but it's not an e sound.

[JFJ in IL]

On the LOE Phonogram cards:

 

i has four sounds:

it ivy stadium onion

 

e has two sounds:

tent be

 

For all -ink words I hear the the same i that I hear in the word it

 

and I pronounce it the same way as bananaman on Forvo

[SnowWhite]

I chose "other". For me, ring and sing have an "ng controlled" i, which is neither short i nor long e. Pink would be pronounced ping-k. (Ohio born and raised)

[LizzyBee]

On Forvo, I would really like people to record pin... pink just to see if they're saying the i the same or differently. A lot of people have said they pronounce the i the same in both words, but if that's true, you are saying pin much differently than I. When I searched for pink on Forvo, it only pulled up about 18 hits, but none of them sounded like short i except the guy from Australia.

[Sahamamama]

Wow, this thread really made me THINK. How do I say PINK? I never considered this before. :huh:

 

I say it like PEENK, sort of. More like PEENK than PIN-K, but the EE is shorter than a stretched out EE. Who knew?

 

New Jersey born and raised. :)

 

blink -- what I did when I saw this thread title

brink

chink

clink

drink

fink -- a term of endearment used by my paternal grandfather, as in, "Hey, Fink! Get me my cigarettes!" To which I replied, "Get them yourself if you want to die." New Jersey born and raised.

ink

kink

link

mink

pink

plink -- the sound the rain makes on a metal roof

rink

sink

shrink

slink

stink

wink

zinc -- helps with sore throats

 

Now I need a DRINK.

[DaffodilDreams]

Yep, definitely an ee. This thread had me in front of the mirror today saying ink and in words. In is a short i and involves very little movement of the mouth/lips. Ink is a long e (ee) and places my lips in a wide smile position. Even my eyebrows raise when I say pink. Now I am convinced that those who voted short i have a very different impression of short i than I do. I asked dh when he came home, and he says it's a long e sound, too.

[Deee]

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.

 

Only on your side of The Ditch, Grover! Here in the Western Antipodes (ie Australia) we say "pink" with a short "i" and we eat "fish and chips". I'm amazed at the idea of peenk and paynk! We don't have a lot of regional variation in Oz.

D

[laundrycrisis]

I'm not reading the whole thread. I grew up in Oklahoma around a lot of heavy accents from Texas and Arkansas, etc, and while I am used to some odd twangy sounds, I have never heard anyone say eenk, peenk, bleenk etc. Ever. I have heard a lot of short e sounds in place of short i sounds - ie, the pen ran out of enk, her dress is penk, etc, but never long e sounds.

[Matryoshka]

I do think the 'i' is a bit more drawn in pink than in pin, but not ee! It's just shorter than a long ee, which is, well, longer and more drawn out. (So I'm agreeing with the many that say it's a bit inbetween, but I'd still call it short). Long ee is how Inspector Clousseau would say it:

 

Sacre bleu! I seenk I have found ze peenk peeg instead of ze peenk pansehr!

 

Apologies for my horrible attempt at transcribing an exaggerated French accent :tongue_smilie:, but that's what pink with long ee would sound like, or what I'm imaging you're describing. The first dictionary links all sound like short i (or ng controlled short i) to me. I haven't figured out how to listen to the pack of you. ;) I'm also definitely using two different vowel sounds in "seeing".

[laundrycrisis]

Long ee is how Inspector Clousseau would say it:

 

Sacre bleu! I seenk I have found ze peenk peeg instead of ze peenk pansehr!

 

 

 

:smilielol5: Hilarious !!!

[Laura Corin]

Yep, definitely an ee. This thread had me in front of the mirror today saying ink and in words. In is a short i and involves very little movement of the mouth/lips. Ink is a long e (ee) and places my lips in a wide smile position. Even my eyebrows raise when I say pink. Now I am convinced that those who voted short i have a very different impression of short i than I do. I asked dh when he came home, and he says it's a long e sound, too.

 

When I say 'ink' or 'pink' my lips are neutral. No smile.

 

Laura

[fraidycat]

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.

 

 

Pink, sink, blink, wink = short i. Yes, they all rhyme, but none of them have a long e sound in them. ;)

[joannqn]

They are sayin "dreenkin" :D Long e pink, ink, drink, think, do not sound like in, itch, ditch. pen and pin are identical in sound. TX born and raised. You Yankees are just weird! :D no offense or anything. (thing is also a long e sound...theeng)

 

 

:iagree: Except in my world pen and pin don't sound remotely the same.

 

 

I think all of the -ing and -ink words sound like a long e. I also think all -ang and -ank words have a long a sound. I've been tutoring a friend's child in reading using a nonsense word program. When these blends came up, I tried to pronounce the nonsense words with a short i and short a but it just didn't work. I was really confused and finally decided that the book must want these made up words to rhyme with sing, sink, rang, rank and adjusted our pronunciation. I just couldn't figure out why the stupid book put them in the short vowel sections when they are clearly long vowel sounds, and the i changes to a long e.

 

And NONE of the recordings sound like short i to me. When I try to say pink with a short i, it sounds nothing like the recordings.

[Lugrita]

This thread is fascinating to me. It never occurred to me that pink/sink/ink would be pronounced any way other than "peenk/seenk/eenk". I'm trying to say it out loud with a short i and it's a new experience for me. Lol! I'm from CA - born and raised here.

[Deee]

I think this is really interesting, too, although you'll never convince me that i can sound like ee! I'm fascinated by the lip movement differences. We Aussies don't move our mouths much when we speak. Its supposedly one of the reasons our accent is so flat. I think you guys, especially the Southerners, must work at lot harder at talking than we do.

D

[stripe]

Only on your side of The Ditch, Grover! Here in the Western Antipodes (ie Australia) we say "pink" with a short "i" and we eat "fish and chips". I'm amazed at the idea of peenk and paynk! We don't have a lot of regional variation in Oz.

Really? I find there to be one region at least with a very strong Australian accent. I don't know what it's called or where it is from (!), but I consider it the sort of cowboy Australian accent. Like that Paul Hogan guy, and also one male politician (maybe it was Kevin Rudd??). I have no idea if they're actually from the same region; they just sounded strong and nasal and over the top, to me. I have relatives there and none of them really sound like that, and definitely not so nasal. I think I really love you people. Australiais just a great country.

 

I think this is really interesting, too, although you'll never convince me that i can sound like ee! I'm fascinated by the lip movement differences. We Aussies don't move our mouths much when we speak. Its supposedly one of the reasons our accent is so flat. I think you guys, especially the Southerners, must work at lot harder at talking than we do.

I am not sure. southerners move their mouths that much, they just have it in a different position and keep it there longer. "Baaaaaa-baaaaaaa!" (Bye-bye) and all that.

 

When I say 'ink' or 'pink' my lips are neutral. No smile.

Let me guess - stiff upper lip? I don't smile when I say "pink" either!

 

I don't understand why I say it exactly the way these other people do, which is supposed to be a short i, but it doesn't sound like a short i. To me, that is the puzzle.

 

I think it's totally fascinating that parents and societies pass on mouth position and so many other things to the next generation!

[Laura Corin]

I think it's totally fascinating that parents and societies pass on mouth position and so many other things to the next generation!

 

For sure. If you watch

without the sound, notice that Jessica Tandy's mouth goes wide all the time, whereas Jeremy Irons' goes tight and forward. Obviously, some of that is to do with how 'smiley' the person is, but JI just doesn't need to go wide for most of his vowels.

 

If you sing in a choir (at least as I have been taught here) you learn to produce even 'ee' sounds without widening the mouth because the vocal tone is better that way.

 

I just tried saying the word 'even' and I don't smile on the first vowel, but it is definitely an 'ee' sound.

 

Laura

[stripe]

If you sing in a choir (at least as I have been taught here) you learn to produce even 'ee' sounds without widening the mouth because the vocal tone is better that way.

Neat. I have noticed opera singers - I've particularly been struck by Jessye Norman - seem to have an effect from singing in other languages. But the training involved in using the mouth and vocal cords reminds me of watching ballet dancers in their everyday life: they just do it differently, so much more deliberately than regular pepole. I really admire it.

[kristinannie]

I have lived in nine states all over the country and have only ever heard or said peenk. Now I am going to start asking people. This is freaking me out!