this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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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.

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

I'm sitting here sounding like an idiot repeating the phrase, and doing a full sentence. There's a distinct, split second pause in between the t and p, no matter how fast I try to go.I can't seem to say the hot without that t being crisp, with the tongue against the upper part of the mouth, then the shift for the p causing a tiny pause in between.

If anything, there's a brief inhalation, which is kind of a sound that links them. Is that what it's supposed to be? We can't be that far off around here. My dad says it the same way I do, I bugged him about it earlier.

When I force it into one mouth movement, it turns into a "tup" sound, but that feels alien to me.