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.

  • DeebsterOPEnglish
    3·
    7 months ago

    You pronounce the t in hot and then pronounce the p of potato?

    • GTG3000English
      2·
      7 months ago

      Yeah. If I try going faster, it turns into “ht’ptayto”. Like a hard stop with tongue against the roof of the mouth before the teeth.

      Although admittedly, this is self-reporting.

      • DeebsterOPEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        I’m sitting here trying to replicate what that sounds like from your description and I’ve only succeeding in sounding like a madman.