Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010

Very hard to tell. I'd put a modest bet on 'human' for lathe. The problem is
that the recording is so short it's hard to grasp what's being said. I
suppose space is too costly to have a little phrase for each word but that
would, I think, make pronunciation clearer.

Interesting!

I tried a few polysyllables on the website to see if they flowed, and
they often seemed not to. EG try 'latent' - there's what appears to be a
glottal stop between the two syllables, which suggests that the words
may be synthesised, (but very authentic, in a "non-Stehphen Hawkinsish"
sort of way).

I also tried a few words such as last, fast and past to see if the
accent was "Received Pronunciation" ("posh"). Here in the North of
England we pronounce these words as they look, but in the south many
people will pronounce them larst, farst, parst.

The dictionary pronuciation of these words on the website had more of an
American edge to it, which sounded rather like "le-ast" and "pe-ast".

I think I need to get out more:-)

David,
Hull,
N.E. Coast of England