Newsgroups: comp.std.internat,alt.folklore.computers,sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!miner.usbm.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!jobone!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!howland.erols.net!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!uknet!bcc.ac.uk!news
From: John Wells <wells@phon.ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: zebra (was re: Pronouncing units)
Sender: news@ucl.ac.uk (Usenet News System)
Message-ID: <32F60615.31E1@phon.ucl.ac.uk>
Cc: j.wells@ucl.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 15:36:53 GMT
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
References: <32C7046E.24F0@cs.purdue.edu> <32DD319B.7EDB@boeing.com> <5bl8hl$7ie@wombat.hanse.de> <32E4CA08.6BAF@boeing.com> <5c3nog$hpc@palladium.transmeta.com> <32EEDBFA.946@postoffice.worldnet.att.net> <32F095D8.1CFB@darkwave.org.uk> <5d0cmb$pp3@bogus.cts.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; I)
Organization: University College London
Lines: 26
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.std.internat:7072 sci.lang:69744

Will Rose wrote:
> 
> : While I haven't a clue how to render phonetic symbols in ASCII, almost
> : everyone in the UK (Other Commonwealth countries? Can anyone confirm?)
> : pronounce the first syllable to rhyme with 'ebb'.
> 
> Well, I've never heard anyone in the UK use that pronounciation;
> tho' I think I've heard it in the US from time to time.  I've
> always heard zee...

I have actually conducted a survey of British pronunciation preferences,
and can report that 83% of my respondents preferred the /"zebr@/, 17%
/"zi:br@/. See my Longman Pronunciation Dictionary s.v.

Since publishing LPD I have correlated informants' responses with their
ages. This shows that preferences are highly correlated with age. For
those born before 1923, only 65% prefer /"zeb-/; 1923-47, 76%;
1948-1962, 95%; since 1962, 96%. Thus in Britain /"zi:b-/ is an older
people's pronunciation. Younger people have standardized on /e/. (It is
well known that Americans are pretty unanimous for /i:/.)

To convert IPA symbols to ASCII, please see
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm .

John Wells
Phonetics & Linguistics, University College London

