"Sweet tone" or "Sweet One"?

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:29 pm

How the heck do you pronounce Sweetone anyways? I've always thought it was "Sweet tone" but one never knows....

Robin

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:30 pm

It's a play on words, as it could be interpreted either way, but it's generally pronounced Sweet Tone, or maybe Sweet Own.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:35 pm

I say "sweet tone". Like that.

And Mellow D is also a play on "melody".

The Crystal People told me.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:37 pm

I usually just say "Swee-Tone".

How do you indicate in written text that a spoken consonant is "swallowed" (i.e., the "t" on "Sweet" is spoken by simply cutting off the air flow in the throat)?

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:38 pm

jsluder wrote:I usually just say "Swee-Tone".

How do you indicate in written text that a spoken consonant is "swallowed" (i.e., the "t" on "Sweet" is spoken by simply cutting off the air flow in the throat)?

A glottal stop?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:40 pm

jsluder wrote:I usually just say "Swee-Tone".

How do you indicate in written text that a spoken consonant is "swallowed" (i.e., the "t" on "Sweet" is spoken by simply cutting off the air flow in the throat)?

Just like that.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:44 pm

Walden wrote:A glottal stop?

That's it! Thanks! And, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop, it's indicated by a "?". So, I say it "Swee?tone".

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:45 pm

I don't do a glottal stop.

But I pronounce most words "incorrectly", anyway.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:02 pm

There was a DJ in Baltimore who used to refer to the 'N Sync singer as
Joey "Fat one."

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:38 pm

It's only spelled Sweetone. It's actually pronounced "luxury yaught".

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:41 pm

"Fanshaw"

(Actually the correct pronunciation of "Featherstone-Haugh", I believe)

scottielvr · Post by **scottielvr** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:53 pm

DCrom wrote:"Fanshaw"

(Actually the correct pronunciation of "Featherstone-Haugh", I believe)

Rats... all this time I've thought that was "fuff."

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:57 pm

You know, spelling bees don't occur in the majority of languages in the world because they're spelled logically.

Not English.

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:09 pm

Cranberry wrote:You know, spelling bees don't occur in the majority of languages in the world because they're spelled logically.

Not English.

Or French, or (as near as I can tell) Gaelic.

Now Spanish - that's a language with sensible spelling. I'm told that Hungarian is another. What little I know of Italian seems to put it in this camp, too.

Any other entries on the hard to spell side of the ledger?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:24 pm

Cranberry wrote:You know, spelling bees don't occur in the majority of languages in the world because they're spelled logically.

Not English.

Interestingly enough, I watched the last 10 contestants of a US national spelling bee recently. Most of them were able to spell words correctly after asking the judges the "language of origin".

I don't think it's so much that english doesn't spell things logically. I think it's more because English is really a mish-mash of words from every language on the globe, and each of THEM has different spelling rules for the same types of sounds.

For example consider the homynyms "their" and "there" (word origins from Mirriam Websters)
Their, from Old Norse theirra
There, from Old English th[AE]r

Same sounds, different origins, thus different spelling roots. This is especially evident when you compare words with greek origins vs words with arabic origins, for instance.