Thicknesse: Question on Pronunciation

[Carol]

Random832 wrote:
> There is no "American" accent, and the most "generic" one (by
consensus) is native to eastern Nebraska, not to southern california.
> 
> Though, to be fair, the differences between american accents are
subtle: 
> - details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_English#Phonology
> 
> > I pronounce the first syllables if Sirius and serious the same as
I pronounce the one-syllable words seer and sear. Which I do not
pronounce 'see - er' (one who sees), nor do I pronunce any of them
with a truly long 'e' like see.
> 
> The one in "sirius" should be shorter, like the other person said,
like the 'i' in 'pit'. I think that maybe it's not so much that you
don't make the distinction between the sounds as you'd never heard
"sirius" pronounced properly, and constructed your own pronunciation
by analogy to 'serious'. It is, though, a very subtle distinction, and
close enough for a pun, so it might be that you are in fact able to
make the distinction but just not describing it correctly.

Carol responds:

Speaking only for myself as an American from Arizona with no
identifiable regional accent (but a few personal idiosyncracies such
as "puh JAH muhs" rather than "puh JAM muhs" for "pajamas"), I
pronounce both "Sirius" and "serious" exactly as "Sirius" is
pronounced in the films (SIH ree us). IOW, I see no difference. Or,
rather, I see the difference in writing, but I hear no difference. So
it's still hard for me to imagine the Muggle prime minister in HBP
mispronouncing the name as "Serious Black." For that matter, "feint"
and "faint" sound the same to me, so "Wonky Faint" for "Wronski Feint"
loses half of its humor when I hear it in my head.

Carol, who would agrees with a previous poster that an American
pronouncing "serious" as "SEE ree us" would sound affected and doesn't
know anyone who would do so