My dialect/idiolect

This is a description of certain features about how I talk, focusing on pronunciation (partly because that's what I have more to say about, and partly because it was initially inspired by a forum thread that focused on pronunciation).

Most of this is from my intuitions about how I talk, and trying to say things out loud; there may be cases where I think I say things a different way than I actually do, or say things differently when I'm thinking about pronunciation vs. normal speech, and I haven't done much to correct for that. (On the other hand, this means there's information here about whether I think of one sound as being the same as another, which one couldn't get from just hearing me talk.)

When I read or think, I usually imagine the sounds of words, which means that I have pronunciations that I use in my head of any word that I read or think (including words that I haven't had reason to say out loud). In some cases, I'm not actually sure if I'd use the same pronunciation if I were actually speaking out loud (particularly in cases where a word has a sound or combination of sounds that otherwise doesn't usually occur in my dialect, or in cases where I know that the pronunciation I use is nonstandard).

Except when otherwise specified, I'm generally talking about whether I pronounce one sound the same as I pronounce another sound, rather than what exactly the sound is. This means, for instance, when I write /aɪ/, that means the "price" vowel, and I haven't determined specifically that it's [aɪ] and not [ai] or [ɑɪ] or something like that (I'm usually just using the notation I'm familiar with). I'm also not always sure where the syllable breaks should go (whether consonants are part of the syllable with the previous vowel or the one with the next vowel), but the number of syllables is pretty much always meaningful.

Contents

• General
• ⟨th⟩
• Vowels before /ɡ/ and /ŋ/
• Vowels before ⟨l⟩ and ⟨r⟩
• Silent ⟨l⟩
• Breaking
• Syllabic ⟨l⟩
• CURE split
• Pronunciation of schwa
• Other
• Specific words
• Words I used to pronounce certain ways
• Spelling/writing

General

I speak something that I think is close to General American. Some fairly standard/common features that are in my dialect:

• rhotic — i.e., written ⟨r⟩ at the end of a syllable (like in car or card) is pronounced similarly to ⟨r⟩ at the beginning of a syllable (like in red), and I perceive it as a consonant, and there are no/very very few cases where a word that has an ⟨r⟩ is a homophone with a word without ⟨r⟩ (e.g., stalk/stark/stork, law/lore, spa/spar, cheetah/cheater are all distinct).
• has flapping — i.e., ⟨t⟩ and ⟨d⟩ in certain places are pronounced somewhat similarly to Spanish single ⟨r⟩, and pairs like latter/ladder are homophones (although I think I might not be completely consistent about this, and at least in some cases can distinguish them if I try). I think of the merged sound as /d/.
• yod-dropping — i.e., the "you" (/ju/) sound doesn't occur after /t/, /d/, /n/, /tʃ/ (ch), /dʒ/ (j), or /l/, and the /u/ sound occurs instead, so tune and toon are homophones.
• wine-whine merger — i.e., ⟨w⟩ and ⟨wh⟩ are pronounced identically, so wine and whine are homophones. (I might be inclined to use /ʍ/ in a few foreign names, e.g. Huawei, maybe Juan, though I don't think I've said such a name out loud.)
• caught-cot merger — i.e., "lot", "father", "cloth", and "thought" have the same vowel, /ɑ/, along with any other words that have the same vowel as any of those (not followed by ⟨r⟩) ("palm" also seems to but it might be slightly different due to the "l" sound, which I do pronounce). That vowel sounds the same to me as the one in stark and completely different from the vowel in stork. That is, to me, stalk and stock are homophones, and stark is similar to both of those but with an extra r sound.
• Mary-marry-merry merger — i.e., the vowels in Mary, marry, and merry (and any other words with those vowels before ⟨r⟩) are the same.
• hurry-furry merger — i.e., the vowels in hurry and furry are the same, and any other word that has those vowels before ⟨r⟩ (also the same as the last syllable in letter). I think the merged sound is a syllabic /ɹ/ (/ɹ̩/, also written /ɚ/).
• I do not have the pin-pen merger — i.e., pen and pin have different vowels for me.

⟨th⟩

A thing I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere: I suspect that I don't distinguish voiced and unvoiced ⟨th⟩ at the beginnings of words (i.e., thy and thigh are homophones to me). At least, just trying to think how words are pronounced, or saying them out loud in isolation, I can't really tell the difference (and I remember in middle or high school being confused by this while someone was talking about a phonetic alphabet), whereas I can easily tell the difference at the ends of words (e.g., teeth vs. teethe) and sometimes in the middle of words (e.g., either vs. ether; probably depends on whether it's at the beginning or end of a syllable), and between other voiced/voiceless pairs (e.g. sue vs. zoo). At one point I read that certain types of function words have /ð/ and everything else has /θ/, and that's the only reason I know which is supposed to be which.

My intuition would be that I use /ð/ (voiced) for both, though listening to recordings I might use both in free variation, and/or for at least some instances of these sounds I use something in between (maybe either a voiceless unaspirated sound, if /θ/ would normally be aspirated (not sure if fricatives usually are?), or something like [θð]).

To pronounce the ⟨th⟩ sounds (at least when I'm paying attention), I put my tongue where my top teeth meet my gums, rather than between my teeth (i.e., they're not interdental for me), and I think they're affricates rather than fricatives, at least sometimes (I remember when I first made the MyLanguage alphabet thinking they were fricatives, and then maybe a few years or so later thinking, no wait, these are stops). The sounds are definitely distinct from /f/, /v/, /t/, and /d/, and since I started noticing mergers with those sounds in other dialects, they kind of distract me a bit. (My natural inclination, before learning that there are actual dialects that have this merger, would be to see use of /f/ for ⟨th⟩ as childish, since I'd mostly heard it from young children that hadn't yet learned to say /θ/.)

If I try, I can produce the voiced/voiceless distinction, use true fricatives, and hear the difference between /θ/ and /ð/, without too much difficulty; it's just that in normal speech, I don't. (I might be inclined to pronounce the name of the letter thorn (þ) with /θ/, since I heard at some point it made specifically the voiceless sound, contrasting with ð which made the voiced sound, which would make it not a homophone with thorn (prickly thing), though I'm not sure I've said that word out loud. I don't think I'd do the same with theta, since I learned that letter name before I realized there was this distinction.)

Vowels before /ɡ/ and /ŋ/

Before /ɡ/ and /ŋ/ (⟨ng⟩ and ⟨nk⟩) (but not /k/), there are some differences in vowels between my dialect and standard dialects:

• The vowel in words with ⟨ing⟩ and ⟨ink⟩ (both stressed and unstressed) is something between /i/ (long ⟨e⟩) and /ɪ/ (short ⟨i⟩), I think a high near-front vowel (/ï/?). I perceive it as /i/, or maybe a completely separate sound, not as /ɪ/. (Before /ɡ/, I pronounce /i/ and /ɪ/ same as I do everywhere else.)
• Words that in other dialects have /ɛɡ/ (short ⟨e⟩), in my dialect have /eɪɡ/ (long ⟨a⟩), and I think of such words as having a long ⟨a⟩ sound. That means that egg (and beg) and vague are a perfect rhyme in my idiolect. The same applies to /ɛŋ/, but the only words I can think of where it applies are length and strength. (Eng, the name of the letter ŋ, I pronounce /ˈɛŋ/, at least in my head.)
• Words that in other dialects have /æɡ/ or /æŋ/ (like bag and bang) have a different sound, which I think is /æɪ/, sort of a combination of /eɪ/ (long ⟨a⟩) and /æ/ (short ⟨a⟩). I sort of think of this as a variant of /eɪ/ rather than /æ/, and when I was young had a hard time telling the difference between /æɪ/ and /eɪ/. It's entirely possible that, as I initially learned the language, bag and beg were homophones, and I unmerged them later in life.

There seem to be some exceptions to these, at least in how I think about the pronunciation (but maybe not when actually speaking? not sure), where the underlying form of the word seems to have /n/ followed by /ɡ/ or /k/; for example, income is /ˈɪŋ.kʌm/, rather than /ˈïŋ.kʌm/, because it's /ɪn/ + /kʌm/. For some reason, penguin is /ˈpɛŋ.ɡwɪn/ (or /ˈpen.ɡwɪn/), rather than /ˈpeɪŋ.ɡwɪn/, but English is /ˈïŋ.ɡlɪʃ/, not /ˈɪŋ.ɡliʃ/.

Vowels before ⟨l⟩ and ⟨r⟩

Silent ⟨l⟩

In words like palm and calm, I fully pronounce the ⟨l⟩ (/ˈkɑlm/, like call with an m). This is how I learned to pronounce those words when learning to talk; if it originated as a spelling pronunciation (as I've heard claimed), then it came from an earlier generation. This page explains this more generally; I pronounce the ⟨l⟩ in all of the ⟨alm⟩ words listed there, but not most of the other red words (though I might be inconsistent about the -olk words) or any of the blue words. Talk and tock are exact homophones in my dialect. I also pronounce the ⟨l⟩ in all of the green words; almond is /ˈɑl.mənd/, falcon is /ˈfæl.kən/, talc is /ˈtælk/ (possibly spelling pronunciation?), Ralph is /ˈɹælf/.

(reading of this post (broken link, haven't found archive))

Breaking

Certain vowels, particularly diphthongs, can't be followed by /ɹ/ or /l/ in the same syllable in my idiolect; words that would have such combinations instead have the /ɹ/ or /l/ in a separate syllable.

Also, anything with ⟨rl⟩ has breaking (world, squirrelled, Carl all have two syllables). Thinking of SQUARE and NEAR as having /eɪ/ and /i/ might be due to spelling; the table would be more symmetric if I didn't think of them that way. I didn't list /ʊ/, /ʌ/, or /ə/ because I don't think of any words as having those vowels before /l/ or /ɹ/ (usually such words have syllabic consonants in my idiolect; see below).

Function words that would have breaking have alternative stressed versions that have a different vowel that doesn't require breaking: /eɪl/ → /ɛl/ (they'll /ˈðɛl/), /il/ → /ɪl/ (he'll and hill are homophones, as are we'll and will), /aɪl/ → /ɑl/ (I'll and all are homophones, as are while and wall), /ul/ → /l̩/ (you'll /ˈjl̩/), /æʊɹ/ → /ɑɹ/ (our and are are homophones). The two-syllable versions are also possible in my idiolect; I think my inclination would be to use the two-syllable version if I'm talking about the word, and the one-syllable version if I'm using the word in a sentence.

When a suffix starting with a vowel is added to a word with /l/ breaking, the /l/ goes into the same syllable as the suffix (so filing has two syllables, /ˈfaɪ.lïŋ/); whereas, after /ɹ/ breaking, the /ɹ/ remains a separate syllable (tourist has three syllables, /ˈtu.ɚ.ɪst/, as does hiring /ˈhaɪ.ɚ.ïŋ/).

Syllabic ⟨l⟩

I pronounce the sounds /ʌl/ (e.g., hull) and /ʊl/ (e.g., pull) as syllabic /l̩/ (that is, no vowel, and the same sound as the end of little). (Or maybe I pronounce them as something like [ɤɫ], with a vowel influenced by the darkness of the /l/.) /ʌl/ and /ʊl/ are fully merged in my idiolect; I had to look up those words to make sure my examples were correct. This sounds very similar to, but not exactly the same as, /oʊl/, so pull and pole are nearly homophones.

There are a few exceptions to this, namely ⟨color⟩ /ˈkʌ.lɚ/ and ⟨lullaby⟩ /ˈlʌ.lə.baɪ/; I think in those cases the /l/ is part of the next syllable.

The "vowel" in hull and pull could be considered an allophone of /ʌ/ or /ʊ/ (since they're in complementary distribution); however, for other allophones (like [pʰ] in /ˈpɪt/ vs. [p] in /ˈspɪt/), I tend to think of them as just being the same sound if I'm not specifically paying attention to how they're different, whereas in this case I think of them as different.

CURE split

Words in the CURE lexical set (i.e., those that have the same vowel as "cure" in most dialects), in my idiolect can be pronounced one of four ways, depending on the word:

• In some words, like poor, the sound is the same as NORTH and FORCE (/oɹ/, or maybe it's actually /ɔɹ/, I'm not sure)
• In other words, like sure, the sound is the same as NURSE (/ɹ̩/, also written as /ɚ/)
• In words that have a y (/j/) sound after yod-dropping, such as cure and pure, the sound is very similar to NEAR (so pure and peer are near-homophones for me) (something like /jɪɹ/)
• In a few words, like tour, the sound is two syllables: a syllable with oo (like who), followed by a syllable with syllabic r (like letter) (something like /u.ɹ̩/, also written /u.ɚ/)

That is, for me, none of the words poor, tour, cure, sure have the same vowel.

"Surely the nurse cured a few patients, and then took them on a tour around the seashore. On the tour they were tourists. The patients had a good view." (originally posted on the xkcd forums)

Words in the same column in the following table have the same vowel in my dialect (the last column is something like /uɹ/, and has words I use very infrequently or not at all—if I actually said them, I might use one of the other vowels):

Pronunciation of schwa

My initial inclination would be to say that schwa/the COMMA vowel /ə/ is the same vowel as STRUT /ʌ/ (e.g. when I was younger, phonetic alphabets that I made used the same letter for both sounds), though also some schwas seem more like the KIT vowel /ɪ/ (especially the ones in the -es and -ed suffixes). I'm not sure I consistently make a distinction, though; around when I first realized this, I noticed some words seemed ambiguous.

I do distinguish a more /ʌ/-like sound and a more /ɪ/-like sound at the ends of words before the plural or past tense suffix, so Rosa's /ˈɹoʊ.zʌz/, roses /ˈɹoʊ.zɪz/, and Rosie's /ˈɹoʊ.ziz/ are all distinct, at least if I'm speaking carefully. Schwa at the ends of words sounds like /ʌ/ (STRUT vowel).

(I don't know for sure if this is true, but I kind of suspect maybe there's an unweakening of /ə/ to /ʌ/ at the ends of words (or utterances?), and maybe the beginnings, like was proposed in the comments here; in that case, perhaps the inclination that /ə/ = /ʌ/ comes from the fact that typical example words for /ə/ are words that have it in positions where it's pronounced /ʌ/ instead.)

When stressed, from, what, was, of, because (but not the noun or verb cause), -body (in somebody etc., but not body by itself), want, and hover have /ʌ/ (STRUT vowel) in my idiolect. Got has /ɑ/. An and and have /æ/ (TRAP vowel; stressed an and the name Ann are homophones for me), and the article a is /ʌ/ or /eɪ/ (FACE vowel, like the letter). I'd probably pronounce wont as /ˈwɑnt/, but I never use that word and it might be a spelling pronunciation.

Other

The names of the Greek letters "psi" and "xi" have clearly-pronounced /ps/ and /ks/ clusters (/ˈpsaɪ/, /ˈksaɪ/), even if I don't usually use those clusters at the beginning of words otherwise (although I think I do sometimes use /ps/ for words starting with ⟨ps⟩; there was a time in my life when I intentionally pronounced certain silent letters, and that might have kind of stuck).

I definitely can pronounce /x/ in loch and Bach, but I don't think I would be inclined to do so in normal speech (not sure about that though).

I think in some contexts (including in isolation) I pronounce /ʊ/ as a centering diphthong, something like /ʊə/; not sure which contexts though.

After a consonant, I pronounce /ju/ as something like /ɪu/ (and was surprised when my dictionary listed view as /ˈvju/ rather than with a separate diphthong). I distinguish /ju/ and /ɪu/ only in the words you/yew vs. ew; I know that ewe is supposed to be pronounced like you, but my natural inclination when seeing it written is to pronounce it like ew.

It can sometimes be hard for me to tell apart /mət/ vs. /mənt/, and /nət/ vs. /nənt/ in unstressed syllables; I might pronounce them the same (I assume this has to do with the schwa getting nasalized). Also I think I might sometimes pronounce might as /ˈmaɪnt/, with an extra /n/.

Rhymes and puns that depend on non-rhotic accents (at least/especially involving /ɔː/, e.g. doors vs. (Santa) Claus, where the vowel is also very different in my dialect) don't work for me, even if I hear them spoken by someone with an accent where they work. I think my brain sort of "corrects" it to my accent, so I hear the words as different even though they're being said the same.

At least sometimes I used "and" after "hundred" and "thousand" (e.g. "one hundred and one"); from my experience the no-"and" thing, which I usually hear described as a US vs. UK thing, is a prescriptivist thing; i.e., I initially learned it with the "and" and then in school they told us not to use "and" (I think for some reason they wanted "and" to only be used for fractions, like "one and one third"; I don't think this really makes sense).

Specific words

• Aesop: /ˈeɪ.sɑp/ (beginning with the name of the letter "A", since it starts with an A not an E); I thought I remembered this being the pronunciation I heard growing up, but my mom says it with /i/ and I can't find evidence of this being an accepted pronunciation
• aesthetic: in my head, /æs.ˈθɛt.ɪk/ (starting with the sound in "apple"), though I think I'd be inclined to start it with a schwa if I was talking out loud to avoid the first syllable sounding like a different word (now that I know that's not the standard pronunciation)
• ambiguity: /æm.bə.ˈɡɪu.ɪt.i/
• aural: /ˈɑɹ.l̩/ (because /ɑ/ is the normal pronunciation of ⟨au⟩ in my dialect, and this makes it distinct from oral), though I'm not sure if I've ever said this word
• bury: /ˈbeɹ.i/ (homophone of berry, and also of Barry)
• caramel: /ˈkɑɹ.ml̩/, though I sort of think of /ˈkɑɹ.ml̩/ and /ˈkeɹ.ə.mɛl/ as different words with slightly different meanings: I grew up only using "caramel" as a mass noun (since it's usually part of another candy or a flavor or something) and pronouncing it with two syllables, but at some point I heard someone talking about "a caramel" or "caramels" with three syllables, so I kind of think of those as different words
• caterpillar: /ˈkæt.ɚ.pɪl.ɚ/, definitely with both r's
• char (the C/Java data type): /ˈtʃɑɹ/ (like the word "char", not like the word "character")
• cicada: /sɪ.ˈkeɪ.də/
• citizen: /ˈsɪt.ə.zn̩/ (at least that's how it's represented in my head; it might come out with an /s/)
• comfortable: /ˈkʌmf.tɚ.bl̩/ ("comfterble", with a pronounced r and metathesis)
• comforter: /ˈkʌmf.ɚ.tɚ/, definitely with both r's
• coupon: /ˈku.pɑn/ (but /ˈkju.pɑn/ doesn't sound weird at all)
• creek: /ˈkɹik/ (as spelled, not "crick")
• either: /ˈi.ðɚ/, neither: /ˈni.ðɚ/ (pretty sure I'm consistent about using the pronunciation with an E sound instead of an I, though I'm definitely familiar with the other pronunciation)
• envelope (noun): /ˈɛn.və.loʊp/ (the /ɑn/ pronunciation used to annoy me a lot as a kid)
• err: /ˈeɹ/ (homophone of "air", like the first syllable in "error")
• especially: /ə.ˈspɛʃ.li/
• et cetera: /ɛt.ˈsɛɾ.ɚ.ə/
• exit: /ˈeɪɡz.ɪt/ (not /ˈɛks.ɪt/)
• February: /ˈfɛb.ju.eɹ.i/
• furniture: /ˈfɹʌn.ɪ.tʃɚ/ ("frunature", with metathesis)
• get: /ɡɛt/, forget: /fɚ.ˈɡɛt/ or /foɹ.ˈɡɛt/
• GIF: I don't have a consistent pronunciation
• governor: /ˈɡʌv.ɚ.nɚ/ or /ˈɡʌv.ə.nɚ/ (I think with both r's in careful speech)
• grocery: /ˈɡɹoʊʃ.ɹi/
• grocer: /ˈɡɹoʊʃ.ɚ/ (by analogy with grocery, though I'm not sure I've heard the word spoken before)
• have to: /ˈhæf.tu/, has to: /ˈhæs.tu/, had to: /ˈhæd.tu/, having to: /ˈhæv.ïŋ.tu/ (when talking about obligation only; normally it would be /ˈhæv/ and /ˈhæz/)
• hurricane: /ˈhɚ.ə.keɪn/
• idea: /aɪ.ˈdi.ə/ (three syllables, no r, very different than eye deer)
• infrared: /ˈɪn.fɹə.ˈɹɛd/ (but I don't say it that often)
• monster: /ˈmɑns.tɚ/
• mature: /mə.ˈtʃɚ/
• Newfoundland: /ˈnu.fn̩.ln̩d/ (first syllable stressed)
• noir: /noʊ.ˈɑɹ/ (two syllables, "no R")
• often: /ˈɑf.n̩/ or /ˈɑf.tn̩/ (either, I think I'm probably more likely to pronounce the t when it's stressed)
• onomatopoeia: /ɑn.ə.mɑn.ə.ˈpi.ə/ (maybe the ns are actually some sort of nasalized flap or something? in any case, the ono and mato parts rhyme.)
• orangutan: /ə.ˈɹæɪŋ.ə.tæɪŋ/ (as if spelled "orangutang"), though there have probably been times when I said /ə.ˈɹæɪŋ.ə.tæn/ due to the spelling
• ostrich: /ˈɑst.ɹɪdʒ/
• pajamas: /pə.ˈdʒæm.əz/ (though I usually say "jammies")
• particular: /pɹə.ˈtɪk.jə.lɚ/ ("praticular", with metathesis)
• pecan: /pi.ˈkɑn/ (second-syllable stress)
• quart: /ˈkwoɹt/ (at least in careful speech; I'm not sure if I'd drop the /w/ when talking less carefully)
• real, reel: /ˈɹi.l̩/ (homophones with each other, but not with rill if that were actually a word in my vocabulary)
• really: /ˈɹɪl.i/
• route: either /ˈɹaʊt/ or /ˈɹut/ for the noun, but only /ˈɹaʊt/ for the verb (and therefore only /ˈɹaʊt.ɚ/ for "router"; might also be a preference for /ˈɹaʊt/ for the computer meaning)
• schedule: /ˈskɛdʒ.jl̩/, or sometimes /ˈskɛdʒ.ju.l̩/
• Sciuridae: /ˈskɚ.ə.deɪ/ (first syllable like in "scurry") or /ˈskwɚ.ə.deɪ/ (first syllable like in "squirrel"); the former is what my high school science teacher used, the latter is from El Goonish Shive (though that's unclear to me about the last syllable), and both are completely different from the pronunciation Wikipedia gives
• solder: /ˈsɑd.ɚ/ ("sodder")
• spinach: /ˈspɪn.ɪtʃ/
• SQL: /ɛs.kɪu.ˈɛl/ (spelled out), though I'm not sure I'm completely consistent
• SQLite: /ɛs.kɪu.ˈlaɪt/ ("ess cue light")
• stalactite: /stə.ˈlæɪɡ.taɪt/ (differs from stalagmite only in the last syllable, meaning the c = ceiling mnemonic doesn't work as well for me)
• sudo (Unix command): /ˈsu.doʊ/ (like pseudo, not sue-do)
• surprise: /sə.ˈpraɪz/ (but maybe sometimes with /ɚ/)
• talk: /ˈtɑk/ (same as the tock in tick tock)
• twenty: /ˈtwɛn.ti/ or /ˈtwɛɾ̃.i/ (definitely /ɛ/, not /ʌ/; I didn't realize that the title text in xkcd 1753 (Thumb War) was supposed to rhyme)
• toward: /ˈtwoɹd~ˈtoɹd/
• vehicle: /ˈvi.(h)ɪ.kl̩/ (three syllables)
• violence: /ˈvaɪ.ə.ln̩s/ (three syllables)
• walk: /ˈwɑk/ (rhymes with sock)
• Wednesday: /ˈwenz.deɪ/
• with: /ˈwɪθ/ (voiceless ⟨th⟩), at least in careful speech
• wolf: /ˈwoʊlf/ (with the vowel from "pole", not "pull"); it wasn't until 2026 that I learned that wasn't considered a standard pronunciation (it has an o in it!), though as I mentioned above, the sounds in "pole" and "pull" are very similar in my idiolect
• women: /ˈwʊm.ɛn/ (with the first syllable the same as "woman"), or at least that's how I think/have thought I pronounced it, and was surprised when I found out that's not even listed as an alternative pronunciation in dictionaries
• wool: /ˈwoʊl/ (similar situation to "wolf")
• yeah: /ˈjæ/
• #include, #define, etc. (in C and C++): "number include", "number define" (at least that's how I tend to say it in my head)
• 1901: "nineteen oh one"

Schwa deletion before r

Suffixes:

• -aceae (in scientific names of families): /ˈeɪ.si/ (like "AC", but with stress on the "A")
• -ae (Latin plural, e.g. antennae): my inclination is to pronounce this as /eɪ/ (anten-neigh), except algae is /ˈæl.dʒi/
• -day (in Monday, Tuesday, etc.): /deɪ/ (same as the standalone word "day")
• -idae (in scientific names of families): /ə.deɪ/ (like "day")

Words I used to pronounce certain ways

These are words where I learned one pronunciation first (when I was really young), and then a different pronunciation later (usually the later one is closer to the spelling). In some cases I'm not sure which pronunciation I'd use if I were talking now (some might be in free variation now).

• birthday: initially /ˈbɚθ.eɪ/ (didn't pronounce the d), now /ˈbɚθ.deɪ/
• camouflage: initially /ˈkæm.l̩.flaɪdʒ/ ("camel flige"), now /ˈkæm.oʊ.flɑʒ/ or /ˈkæm.ə.flɑʒ/
• clothes: initially /ˈkloʊz/ (homophone of the verb close), now /ˈkloʊðz/ (though I might still use /ˈkloʊz/ sometimes)
• crayon: initially /ˈkɹaʊn/ (homophone of crown, or at least people around me pronounced it that way), now /ˈkɹeɪ.ɑn/
• ketchup: initially /ˈkætʃ.ʌp/ (homophone of catch up), now maybe /ˈkɛtʃ.ʌp/
• measure, treasure: initially /ˈmæʒ.ɚ/, /ˈtɹæʒ.ɚ/, now maybe /ˈmɛʒ.ɚ/, /ˈtɹɛʒ.ɚ/ (but pleasure has always been /ˈplɛʒ.ɚ/, so initially measure didn't rhyme with pleasure)
• milk: initially /ˈmɛlk/ ("melk"), now maybe /ˈmɪlk/ due to the spelling (but silk and ilk have always been /-ɪlk/ for me, meaning they didn't rhyme with milk)
• mirror: initially /ˈmɪɹ/ (one syllable, homophone of mere), now /ˈmɪɹ.ɚ/ (rhymes with nearer); terror and horror I'm pretty sure I've always used two syllables
• (lawn) mower: initially /ˈmoɹ/ (homophone of more), now /ˈmoʊ.ɚ/

There are also some words that I first saw written down, and the pronunciation I used in my head was different from what I later heard other people say. (A lot of the ones I can think of relate to computers/programming, and I think a lot of these I haven't said out loud.)

• hors d'oeuvre: initially /hoɹz.də.ʔoʊ.ˈɛv.ɚ/ ("whores duh oh ever"; I don't remember if I already knew the word and just didn't realize it was the same word; also I had a phase of intentionally mispronouncing French words in my head, because I didn't like how weird French spelling was)
• kludge: initially /ˈklʌdʒ/ (rhymes with "fudge" and "judge"), but I've heard /ˈkludʒ/ (Wiktionary shows my pronunciation as acceptable)
• parse (and parser): initially /ˈpɑɹz/ (with a "z" sound), but I've heard /ˈpɑɹs/ (Wiktionary shows my pronunciation as acceptable)
• queue: initially /ˈkwɪu.i/ (like if Elmer Fudd tried to pronounce "query"; first encountered this as a programming term and didn't know how to interpret that combination of letters)
• status: initially /ˈstɑt.əs/ (with the "father" vowel, though I think my actual initial pronunciation mangled it more into something with one syllable; first encountered this in "status bar" and similar things), but I've heard /ˈstæt.əs/ mostly (first syllable like "stat" or "stats")
• tuple: initially /ˈtʌp.l̩/ (first syllable like Tupperware), but I've heard /ˈtup.l̩/ (Wiktionary shows my pronunciation as acceptable)

I'm sure there are plenty of other words like that.

Spelling/writing

I generally use American spellings; however, I have some inclination to use British-style double l's (e.g. travelling), which I'm not particularly consistent about.

I tend to put punctuation outside quotation marks, unless it's part of the quoted sentence.

Specific words:

• blond (I don't do the masculine/feminine distinction (I'm not speaking French!), and I've made a conscious decision to use blond exclusively)
• gray
• judgement (the spelling judgment violates the rule about when g says which sounds)