Talk:1697: Intervocalic Fortition

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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The idea, stated in the alt-text, that "meh" was created by writers of "The Simpsons", is incorrect. "The Simpsons", however, was responsible for widely popularizing it. See [1] and [2] Dubaaron (talk) 04:31, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Is it really saying that The Simpsons created the word? All it says is that it introduced the word, which does not seem to imply that it didn't exist before. If I introduce a friend of mine to another person, I most likely did not just create that other person, and there is no reason to believe that it should be any different for words.Mulan15262 (talk) 13:24, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
I don't think that "writers on The Simpsons decided to mess with future linguists" means "writers of The Simpsons introduced the word". 108.162.221.13 14:25, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

"The" ends in a lax vowel, and it's the most ubiquitous word in the language, so that rule is wrong. 108.162.221.10 04:45, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

I've always seen "lax vowel" referring to full (unreduced) vowels. When unstressed, the vowel in "the" is reduced (/ðə/), and when stressed it's tense (/ði:/). 188.114.109.66 05:08, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
Furthermore, the lax vowel is only used if 'the' is followed by another syllable, and so the utterance will not be lax-vowel-final. 162.158.2.219 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
How does that matter? The rule as stated was about the ending of words, not of utterances. Huttarl (talk) 19:21, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
What the? That can't be right... 162.158.83.102 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Questions. Is this happening in (American) English? is "adverb" becoming /adferb/. Any other examples?Zeimusu (talk) 05:55, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

I scanned some 'v' words and didn't see much. A plural of dwarf discussion; similarly wharf splits into both wharfs and wharves. 'Halving' might benefit in the sense that the 'l' is silent so it sounds like 'having' and might be more clear as 'halfing'. I've also noticed a smattering of YouTubers writing "could of/should of" instead of contracting 'have', i.e, "could've/should've". Elvenivle (talk) 06:50, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
The pronunciation of both of and ’ve is /əv/. 108.162.221.13 13:35, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
No, I don't think this is really happening. 141.101.98.77 11:22, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
"Adverb" doesn't have an intervocalic "v". 108.162.221.13 14:21, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
No, but the prank as stated in the comic "V's in the middle of words" applies to "adverb". 108.162.237.178 15:34, 22 June 2016 (UTC)