http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/weak-form-loss Language in a word Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:06:06 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/weak-form-loss/comment-page-1#comment-9456 Philip TAYLOR Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:49:21 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=365#comment-9456 Although I would agree with most of your findings in this context, I must disagree that the weak form of "pence" has been lost. Certainly I continue to use /… p(ə)ns/ (as in /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/, /ˈfɔːp(ə)ns/, etc.), and I cannot recall an occasion on which I was asked to repeat myself in order to be understood. However, as a check, I have just asked my wife (36 years old, and a non-native speaker of ) to hand me (in turn) /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/ and /ˈfɔːp(ə)ns/ and the only one she got correct was the last. For /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, she handed me 1p; for / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/ she asked "what's that ?". So I suspect that the weak form is indeed rare, although not yet completely extinct. Although I would agree with most of your findings in this context, I must disagree that the weak form of “pence” has been lost. Certainly I continue to use /… p(ə)ns/ (as in /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/, /ˈfɔːp(ə)ns/, etc.), and I cannot recall an occasion on which I was asked to repeat myself in order to be understood. However, as a check, I have just asked my wife (36 years old, and a non-native speaker of ) to hand me (in turn) /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/ and /ˈfɔːp(ə)ns/ and the only one she got correct was the last. For /ˈtʌp(ə)ns/, she handed me 1p; for / ˈθrʌp(ə)ns/ she asked “what’s that ?”. So I suspect that the weak form is indeed rare, although not yet completely extinct.

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