View source for Talk:Silent '-e-'

The article needs expanding to include pairs of examples to illustrate the potential changes in pronunciation.[[User:AlanBrod|AlanBrod]] 06:44, 12 September 2013 (BST)

And the consonants - is there a pattern of 'voicing' ([[Voice (phonetic)]]) among the changes?

[[User:PeterWilson|PeterWilson]] 12:41, 12 September 2013 (BST)

As a native speaker of English I'm inclined to say there is a pattern of voicing but I find it difficult to justify other than by thinking of hypothetical spellings. I would be inclined to pronounce a new word ending with a single "s" after a vowel unvoiced but hesitate over the same word with a final "e". The only real world example of a minimal pair I can think of is "us" /ÊŒs/ and the verb "use" /juËz/ but there is also the noun "use" /jus/ and many other examples of voiced vs voiceless pairs of nouns and verbs which both have a silent e. There are also many examples of words ending "se" with unvoiced pronunciation which do not have voiced alternatives (goose, mouse). For the moment I don't think I'll go into that but stick to vowel changes, the softening of "g" and "c" and examples where it appears to be entirely redundant.[[User:AlanBrod|AlanBrod]] 04:01, 13 September 2013 (BST)

*Good thinking - although it is seminal in my thinking that my then Head of Department in Manchester always used to claim that 'booz' was indicative of the local accent. [[User:PeterWilson|PeterWilson]] 05:03, 13 September 2013 (BST)