Mastodawn

I have a question specifically for people from the British Isles. What do you think about the final "t" in the word "restaurant" being silent or audible?

A — must be silent; that's just the way it's pronounced correctly
B — silent is posh, audible is normal
C — silent is British, audible is non-British (North American, for example)
D — something else (please add comment to elaborate)

Boosts appreciated!

#AskFedi #Linguistics #Pronunciation #Accents

A

12.2%

B

58.5%

C

12.2%

D

17.1%

Poll ended at Jun 16 at 8:01pm.

Show thread

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉1d ago

@xahteiwi
Always *audible*, although often pronounced as a glottal stop rather than an alveolar plosive. “Silent” t is distinctly French, not at all British, not even posh

Show thread

Florian Haas 1d ago

@ancientsounds Michael Palin and David Attenborough habitually pronounce it with a silent second "t" and no audible glottal stop. In their pronunciation the second "t" is also silent in the plural, "restaurants". (Reference: pretty much any of their audiobooks as recorded and presently available on Audible)

This getting me curious was part of the impetus for the poll, as it happens. 🙂

Show thread

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉1d ago

@xahteiwi
OK I guess that could be just French pronunciation, i.e. hyper-posh English

Show thread

Florian Haas 1d ago

@ancientsounds Is it fair to say that it's also somewhat archaic? (Considering Sir David is a centenarian and Sir Michael is 83)

Show thread

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉

@xahteiwi
Difficult to say without also surveying the speech of very posh young people. “High RP” is linguistically conservative, yes, meaning that it conserves older features of speech, but it seems to survive pretty well through the generations, though it does change.

Show thread

Dick Armoire 1d ago

@ancientsounds @xahteiwi I've not been around RP for a while but I don't remember the t being missed.

My guess is that it's some combination of age, class, and them both being well travelled. Perhaps they're just more used to the French pronunciation of that word?

Show thread

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉1d ago

@diffrentcolours @xahteiwi
I think you're right. More French-like pronunciation of French loan-words is a feature of High RP, and presumably signals “well-travelled” and “well-educated”. In Oxford there's quite a bit of that! I've heard “questionnaire” pronounced with initial [kes...], not [kwes...], for example.