(urth) lots of stuff

[Jerry Friedman]

From: António Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>
>Ryan Dunn wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 12, 2010, at 5:47 PM, António Pedro Marques wrote:
>>
>>> John Watkins wrote (12-07-2010 22:33):
>>>> All of the speculation and mystery make me consider "Father Inquiry" as
>>>> a possible pun?  (Assuming it's "in-ee-rey" rather than "in-ire-ay" or
>>>> somesuch.)
>>>
>>> I suppose the default pronunciation is ['fAT at rI'naI at r]. Does this look like 
>>>something else mistranscribed?
>>>
>>> The 'father' part is more or less established, unless 'father' itself is an 
>>>enlgish transalation of a misheard original.
>>>
>>> 'Inire' itself doesn't seem to offer many possibilities. ['InIri], [I'ni at r], 
>>>[InI'r at I]?
>>>
>>> ['] stresses the syllable following it
>>> [I] short i
>>> [@] the uh sound in -er
>>> [i] long i

You know "long i" in American English means the vowel in "eye", /aI/?  We use 
"long" for the vowel sounds that "say their names".  The usage in other 
English-speaking is different, I think.

>> [T] th

(You want /D/ for the "th" in "father".)

>> I've always assumed it's pronounced:
>> 
>> FAH-thur in-AYr (aka father-in-ire)

>> I.e. ['fAT at rI'naI at r]

>> no?

> LH says an audiobook has in-EER [I'ni at r] while his? own pronunciation is 
> in-EER-ay [I'ni at re].

I'm with Lane: I pronounce it in foreign, /@n'ireI/.  (I don't have a Texas 
accent.)

Jerry Friedman