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Students Stick to the shed-yul - Teacher Stumpers
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Stick to the shed-yul - Teacher Stumpers

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Monday, 16 February 2009 15:03
Written by Neal Chambers

I used to live in Portland before I moved to Japan. In Portland, I used to sell computers for a large computer maker. My co-worker was from England. Although he usually had an American accent, he would always ask

 

“Where is the shed-yul?”

 

"What is a shed-yul?" I thought. I was confused. He would say sorry and then say “skedjul” slowly. I would usually reply “Ohhh.... right.”

 

Even native speakers have difficulty with accents, so I can't blame my students for being a little confused. Let's practice some confusing differences.

 

First, let's talk about the pronunciation of 'schedule':

 

American English (AE) IPA - /ˈskɛ.dʒul/

British English (BE) IPA - /ˈʃɛdjul/

 

You can check the pronunciation at these two sites: forvo.com and howjsay.com

 

The British pronunciation is very close to the French word. The American pronunciation is based on the Greek spelling. The word schedule originally comes from the Old French word cedule from the Late Latin word schedula (strips of paper) from Greek word skhizein (to split, to cleave).1

 

Another word that is influenced by French is “garage

 

American English (AE) IPA - /ɡəˈɹɑːʒ/

British English (BE) IPA - /ˈgæˌɹɪdʒ/

 

Again, the British pronunciation is very close to the French word. If you go to forvo.com you can hear the French and American pronunciation. You can listen to my accent too. My username is macanudo.  You can also hear an excellent sample at howjsay.com and clear examples of both AE and BE at wiktionary.com

 

Garage” comes from French from Middle French garer “to shelter, dock ships” (c. 1400~c. 1700)2

 

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1"schedule." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 16 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/schedule>.

2"garage." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 16 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/garage>.

Last Updated on Sunday, 07 March 2010 07:14
 

Comments  

 
0 #1 Alex Case 2009-02-19 09:23
The phonemic symbols are a bit messed up on this computer, but I think the French pronunciation of garage would be closer to the pron you have written as American, as French always put the stress on the last syllable and don't have the hard /dj/ sound. Actually, both of them exist in the UK anyway, with the one you've put as British being the one used by common people like me and the other one being posh.

Both the schedule pronunciations also seem to exist in the UK nowadays too, but I think that is the American influence in that case.
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