As a taster for the release next week of #WVGTbook (and if you don't know what that is you haven't been paying attention
), here are the notes from the IE section:- cockamamie
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the sound /eɪ/ in the stressed syllable, but the audio sample has the sound /æ/. This word is not listed at all in the British National Corpus but its American counterpart – the Corpus of Contemporary American ('COCA') – lists 66, suggesting that this is primarily an American usage. It is little wonder that the pronunciation of the 'English' variant (according to the dictionary) is uncertain; it may very well be the first time the speaker has uttered the word! A speaker of British English would probably prefer the word cock-and-bull. - hoodie
The name of the garment (a sweater with hood attached) has spread metaphorically to its habitual wearer, in a way reminiscent of a similar metaphorical use of the word anorak – reminiscent, that is, in terms of process rather than semantics. - hurried
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the ending /id/, but the Collins English Dictionary has the ending /ɪd/. Both pronunciations are common. In some dialects /id/ marks the past simple of the verb and /ɪd/ marks the adjective. - knobkierie
Both 'ie' digraphs have the /i/ pronunciation. The Macmillan English Dictionary gives the variant knobkerrie, with the same transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /e/. - ambient, convenient, obedient, resilient, subservient, and transient (unlike sapient)
The Macmillan English Dictionary lists these words and the abstract nouns ending in '-ience' derived from them, but not sapience . This word is, however, listed in several other dictionaries. The link given here is to the Collins English Dictionary, but other '-ience' words are not separately listed. - brassière
The 'è' is often ignored (as it is in the transcription and the audio sample provided in the Macmillan English Dictionary). Moreover, as in the Macmillan English Dictionary, the 'ss' is realized as /z/. As a result, the only distinguishing feature between brazier and brassière is the stressed vowel (/eɪ/ versus /æ/). - costumier
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the ending /iə/ but the audio sample has /ie/ followed by some kind of central vowel. This shows some awareness in the speaker of the French origin (unlike in the word croupier, which has a clear /iə/). - fluent‡ and lenient (unlike salient)
The Macmillan English Dictionary lists these words and the abstract nouns ending in 'ency' derived from them, but not saliency. This word is, however, listed in several other dictionaries. The link given here is to the Collins English Dictionary, but other '-ency' words are not separately listed. - orienteering
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the vowel sound /iə/, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ie/. Both pronunciations are common.. - skier
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the vowel sound /i:ə/, as does the Collins English Dictionary. Confusingly – for the student who expects the pattern cry –> crier, fly –> flier, try –> trier ... to apply in the same way to the informal verb sky [meaning 'hit a ball very high, as if inviting a catch']† – that dictionary also lists the word skyer, pronounced with the vowel sound /aɪə/, but the Macmillan English Dictionary does not. - variegated
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the vowel sound /iə/, but the audio sample has the sound /ɪ/. - ancient
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with /ʃə/, but /ʧə/ is also used. - ancien régime
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription of the stressed vowel in the first word is /iæ/, but in the audio sample the vowel is nasalized. - fie
The Macmillan English Dictionary does not list this word. The link given here is to the Collins English Dictionary. - biennial and triennial
The Macmillan English Dictionary lists only these two words with the vowel sound /aɪe/ in British English, in this case two vowels. In American English this pair of vowels is much more common, given the /aɪ/ sound at the end of prefixes such as multi-. One example among many is multiethnic. - brier
The Macmillan English Dictionary lists this as an alternative to the more common briar. - materiel
The Macmillan English Dictionary trancription has the vowel sound /iə/, but the audio sample has /ie/ – matching the Collins English Dictionary entry. - per diem
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this, with a matching audio sample, with the (unique) vowel sound /i:e/. - couturier
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription of the final syllable is /ieɪ/, but the audio sample has a clear /iə/ (as for croupier, which has matching transcription and audio). Both pronunciations are common in French borrowings ending '-ier'. - handkerchief
The Macmillan English Dictionary list both this and the arguably archaic kerchief . The British National Corpus has only 24 instances of kerchief, 21 of which are in prose fiction. (In fact, the category is called 'W_fict_prose', and I suspect the covers may predominantly feature the colour pink!) In contrast, the same corpus reports over 600 instances of handkerchief – more than 24 x (24 + 1)*.
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription of handkerchief has /ɪ/ in the last syllable, but the audio sample has /i:/. For the less familiar kerchief, the audio matches the /ɪ/ transcription. - mischief and neckerchief
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription of these words has /ɪ/ in the last syllable, but the audio sample has /i:/. - quietus
The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the sound /aɪeɪ/. The pronunciation of Latin tags reflects the four or five fashions for pronunciation that have prevailed in English schools from time to time. See also note 23. - sine die
The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the sound /ieɪ/ - clientele
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription gives this vowel sound, but the audio sample has the /aɪə/ of the more familiar (and fully anglicized) client. Both pronunciations are common. - eight
The many derivatives (eighteeen, eighty, eighteenth... etc) are not listed separately. The effective digraph in gaiety is 'ai', so the word is listed in the 'ai' section. - medieval
The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this /i'i:/, with the two vowels separated to mark the onset of the stressed syllable. But in the audio sample this is not clear, and it might be felt that there is a single ('ultra-lengthened') /i:/. Both pronunciations are common – sometimes even in the same speaker, with the separation more clearly marked in more formal contexts.
Update 2013.06.07.19:15
*
– maths was never my strong point. Update 2013.06.07.22:55
‡
– yes, yes, I know... That's what drafts are for.Update 2013.06.08.19.50
† This funky sans-serif font marks an addition I have made to the skier note, which (belatedly) explains the apparently irrelevant mention of skyer.
Update 2013.09.30.11:05
Header updated:
Mammon (When Vowels Get Together V4.0: Collection of Kindle word-lists grouping different pronunciations of vowel-pairs – AA-AU, EA-EU, and IA-IU, and – new for V4.0 – OA-OU. If you buy it, contact @WVGTbook on Twitter and I'll alert you to free downloads of the forthcoming volumes; or click the Following button at the foot of this page.)
And if you have no objection to such promiscuity, Like this.
Freebies (Teaching resources: nearly 32,400 views**, and 4,400 downloads to date. They're very eclectic - mostly EFL and MFL, but one of the most popular is from KS4 History, dating from my PGCE, with 1570 views/700 downloads to date. So it's worth having a browse.)
** This figure includes the count of views for a single resource held in an account that I accidentally created many years ago.
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