Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[leslie]

Hi,

I was thinking how you express it when you want to describe that mispronouncing the word because you speak too fast or something's choking you when you pronounce the word? For example, you mean to say: What did you say? But it turns out to be: What did you shay? Is there an expression for that? Could you please make an example sentence for me? Can I express it as 'out of tune', 'offkey' or 'off tune'? Please help me. Thanks!

[Mister Micawber]

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I would say that the pronunciation was slurred.
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[LucentShade]

I would call it "ellision," which happens when words are pronounced quickly and sounds get deleted or combined. The phrase "Did you know that?" can become "Didja know that?" True story--in my "Teaching ESL" class last year, my teacher gave us an example that sounded like "Jeet jet?" There was one person from Japan, one person from Argentina, and the rest were (American) English native speakers. We understood it as "Did you eat yet?", but the non-native speakers didn't. Understanding ellisions can be tough, but with practice listening to people and hearing how these "shortcuts" work, you'll understand them better.

[Mister Micawber]

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[Harmony]

Welcome, Mister Micawber! I'm glad to see you here!

Pronouncing "say" as "shay" definitely seems slurred to me, but I'm wondering if Leslie's example has caused some confusion. "Speaking too fast" and "choking" make me think of words like garbled or unintelligible.

Here are two sentences that might be helpful:

I choked on a bite of apple and my words came out garbled.

He was talking so fast that his words were almost unintelligible.

>>>>>>>>>

For what it's worth, here's what two dictionaries have to say:

From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:

unintelligible
Being such that understanding or comprehension is difficult or impossible; incomprehensible: unintelligible remarks; an unintelligible prose passage.

garbled
Mixed up or distorted to such an extent as to make misleading or incomprehensible

slurred
Pronounced indistinctly

elision
1. Omission of a final or initial sound in pronunciation.
2. Omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable, as in scanning a verse.
3. The act or an instance of omitting something.


From WordNet (Princeton University):

unintelligible
1: poorly articulated or enunciated, or drowned by noise; "unintelligible speech"
2: not clearly understood or expressed

garbled
lacking orderly continuity

slurred
spoken as if with a thick tongue; "the thick speech of a drunkard"; "his words were slurred"

elision
1: omission of a sound between two words (usually a vowel and the end of one word or the beginning of the next) elision
2: a deliberate act of omission; "with the exception of the children, everyone was told the news"

[Harmony]

LucentShade - "Jeet jet?" I'm still laughing at that one!

[leslie]

Thank you guys for your answers. They're useful and helpful. When someone wants to say, for example, 'What did you say?' in the first place, but it turns out-- 'What did you shay?' when he might be swollowing his saliva or choking at the moment he pronounces 'say' into 'shay'. I want to know if there's an expression for this. Your answers did instruct me. However, from the definitions I cannot find them quite fit what I look for. Thank you again.

Leslie

[Harmony]

Hi Leslie,

I'm not aware of a specific expression that's used for that situation. If you find one please let us know!

[Lorikeet]