Dialects

[spaceoperadiva]

The Girl-unit's spelling book insists that el and al are pronounced the same. We're talking about things like the ending combos of letters on final and fuel, to use two actual examples from her lesson. I checked Howjsay and they don't sound at all alike there. So I'm wondering, where in the English speaking world do final and fuel sound alike

Comments

[remus_shepherd]

"ph-ah-ee-n-al" = final

"ph-y-oo-al" = fuel

That book is speaking in phonemes, which is a TERRIBLE way to teach children. Phonemes do not make sense when compared to english spelling, and should be ignored except by linguists.

[spaceoperadiva]

So they sound the same for you? Can I ask where you grew up and where your parents grew up?

[zhent]

No, to me they are different sounds. Similar, but different.

[ciarrainic]

Nope, they don't sound to same to me at all. I'm grew up in Wyoming.

[desperance]

I grew up in Oxford, England; and - while I want them to be two different sounds, and I certainly wouldn't trust any book that told me that they weren't - in practice, over here? Very few people would give them any significantly different intonation. It's almost an unpronounced syllable: fin'l, fu'l.