xkcd #2942: Fluid Speech

https://xkcd.com/2942

explainxkcd.com for #2942

Alt text:

Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you’re okay.

  • RP drives me crazy with its bizarre pronunciation rules. Like never pronouncing ‘R’ unless it’s not there.

    “Law and order” under RP approximates “lo ran doh duh” where literally every ‘R’ in the phrase is not spoken, but they jam one in place of the ‘W’.

    ARGH! THE SPIDERS ARE EATING MY EYEBALLS FROM THE INSIDE!