Re: English is a crazy language

Christophe Grandsire writes:

 > En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
 >
 > >
 > > No and no; "clothes" is idiosyncratically pronounced /klowz/,
 > > although some people use a spelling pronunciation /klowDz/.  In
 > > eye-dialect, it is written "clo'es".
 > >
 >
 > Well, that's strange. We've had quite a few different assistants
 > during my years of learning English, besides French teachers who
 > were often considered completely bilingual. I remember four
 > assistants especially, two from the United States, one from Britain
 > and the other from Ireland. Well, one thing is sure, they *all*
 > used [D] in "clothes", without exception (that was a very often
 > used word, since I was often nearly the only one around who could
 > master [T] and [D], and it was often used as example. That's why I
 > know very well that they pronounced it with [D]). Would have we
 > been unlucky enough to have only hypercorrectors as assistants,
 > especially from so many different places? i somehow doubt so.
 >
 > Christophe.
 >
 > http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
 >
 > Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading
 > role.

So far as I know, I've always pronounced the /D/ (except maybe in very
fast speech), but I just checked with my mother, and she doesn't.  I'd
never noticed.  I'll have to check what my father does... I'm
basically RP, my mother is... I can't remember the names of US
accents, but she's from Pennsylvania, and her accent is by now heavily
influenced by RP.  It's quite possible that I got it purely as a
spelling pronunciation - I seem to remember a time when I pronounced
"jewellery" with 4 syllables, until I was corrected.