words pronounced with their letters reversed

Question

Why are some words pronounced as though their letters were reversed?

For example, why is bible pronounced “buy-bel” and not “bib-lee”, or Favre pronounced “far-vuh” and not “fav-rah”?

Related: Why is “ask” sometimes pronounced “aks”? ◊ What causes the pronunciation “nucular”? ◊ What is the correct pronunciation and spelling of “asterisk”? ◊ and others. — RegDwigнt, Aug 08 '12 at 14:29
The best example I can think of is iron, which is usually pronounced (at least in the US) as though it were spelled iorn. Another is choir, which is pronounced kwy-or, i.e. with the i before the or. — Caleb, Aug 08 '12 at 14:43
@Caleb No it isn’t. Iron is (sometimes) pronounced [ˈaɪɹ̩n]. — tchrist, Aug 08 '12 at 14:48
@Caleb And there is no or in choir, which is pronounced [ˈkʰwaɪɹ̩]. — tchrist, Aug 08 '12 at 14:50
@tchrist When you write them that way, they're not pronounceable at all! ;-) I take your point about syllabic consonants, and I think it's basically the right answer, but to us non-linguists it does seem like the letters are inverted. — Caleb, Aug 08 '12 at 14:58
How can you tell they are pronounced with their letters reversed? Would one be wrong asking why they are written with their letters reversed? ;-) — Alain BECKER, Aug 08 '12 at 21:41
It all depends on who's saying it: I'm surprised no one's linked to this famous gaffe. (Only the first 20 seconds or so pertain to this question.) — J.R., Aug 08 '12 at 22:11

tchrist · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-08T16:52:03.473

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Bible is not pronounced with “reversed letters”: the e is silent. Words like rhythm, acre, centre, bible, bottle, little, button all simply have syllabic consonants. For example:

bible [ˈbaɪbɫ̩]
little [ˈlɪtɫ̩]
Favre [ˈfɑvɹ̩]
acre [ˈeɪkɹ̩]
centre [sɛntɹ̩]
button [ˈbʌtn̩]
even [ˈiːvn̩]
awful [ˈɔːfɫ̩]
rhythm [ˈɹɪðm̩]

Those all have two syllables, and all without a vowel in the second syllable. The consonants are acting as the syllabic center, which makes them fundamentally vowel-behaving, normally called syllabic consonants.

If you are talking about why some people will ^{_{(“mis‑”)}}pronounce words like cavalry as calvary, or for that matter croqueta as corqueta, please see metathesis.

edited Aug 08 '12 at 16:52

answered Aug 08 '12 at 14:33

tchrist

134,759

5

I think you're wrong on Favre -- it's always pronounced by sports commentators with the r before the v: Farve. I noted some other examples in my comment on the question. The OP's examples aren't good ones, but there are some words where letters seem to be pronounced out of order. – Caleb Aug 08 '12 at 14:49
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All of your examples are correct except Favre, which really is an oddball exception. The OP, however, is confused by putting bible and Favre into the same category. – JSBձոգչ Aug 08 '12 at 14:51
@JSBձոգչ I am pronouncing Favre the way a friend of mind whose name that is pronounces his own name. I’m a programmer, not a jockhead, so I have no idea what this sporty business is about. – tchrist Aug 08 '12 at 14:53
@Caleb I am pronouncing Favre precisely as my friend whose surname that happens to be does. Therefore, it is not “wrong”. Your kilometrage may vary. – tchrist Aug 08 '12 at 14:54
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So there are two pronunciations of "Favre"? One used by a famous athlete in the US, and one used by some random guy that tchrist knows. Interesting – JSBձոգչ Aug 08 '12 at 14:59
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I just assumed that the sportscasters didn't know how to properly pronounce "Favre". – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Aug 08 '12 at 15:01
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@tchrist Surely the most widely-known Favre is Brett Favre, the "NFL's All-Time Winningest Quarterback." Clearly, though, the pronunciation of his name is an exception. – Caleb Aug 08 '12 at 15:04
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@Caleb Never heard of such a ho-hum him. I would rather die than submit to spectator sports: give me bread, not circuses. Spectating is not sporting. Plus I’ve had no television for 36 years, so don’t go in for such drivel. – tchrist Aug 08 '12 at 15:05
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Favre is a Swiss-born painter and her name is pronounced /favr/. – Barrie England Aug 08 '12 at 15:16
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Seems to me the issue here is non-English names that don't render very well in spoken English. FAH-vreh doesn't work in spoken English as well as "FARV." The chap probably just decided to let his name be pronounced that way in the English speaking world. You see this sort of thing all the time. A German Jurgen (umlaut on the U) known to his friends as "Yogi." A Vietnamese Uyen (circumflex on the E) known as "Win." Those are just off the top of my head, but there are likely many others where the sounds from the original language are reversed for ease of pronunciation in English. – JAM Aug 08 '12 at 16:54
Agreed with @JAM. French names (amongst others) that use sounds not native to English are often mangled when rendered by English speakers. Favre is a perfect example. You hear it all the time with French Rs, which are rolled. English speakers rarely roll Rs so they mangle the consonants in names like Favre instead. – Joel Brown Aug 08 '12 at 19:53
@JoelBrown French R’s are rolled? Huh! Define rolled. The standard French R is /ʁ/, although a variety of other allophones can occur dialectally. “Selon le locuteur, [ʁ] peut être remplacé par [χ], [ʀ], [x], [ɣ], [r] ou [ɾ]. Ce phénomène s’appelle variation allophonique.” from here. See also here. – tchrist Aug 08 '12 at 20:00
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@tchrist - The jargon term is Alveolar trill (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_trill). I'm sure there are cases where R is just R, but most French speakers I know roll their Rs more often than not. This may be a misperception based on my being sensitive to the sound as it isn't natural to my native English ears. – Joel Brown Aug 08 '12 at 21:57
@JSBձոգչ: As for the famous QB (now retired - I think) and tchrist's friend - Even though two people spell their last names the same, that doesn't mean they'll pronounce them the same. I've seen this from time to time ~ one example I remember well is the last name Grenier. The ancestors of one family I knew had "Americanized" it some time ago (pronouncing it Grə-NEER) while another woman I knew with the same last name clung to the French pronunciation (Gren-YAY). I'm sure there are several other examples. – J.R. Aug 08 '12 at 22:41
@JoelBrown Comparatively few are the Frenchmen who have an actual [r] the way a Spaniard does, and those that do are more often found down towards Marseilles. [ʁ] is uvular, not alveolar. And it isn’t a flap, warble, trill, whoop, or whistle. It’s a fricative or approximant. – tchrist Aug 08 '12 at 22:45
@JoelBrown It is possible that you have [r] in Québec; it is not common in France proper, where [ʁ] is standard. – tchrist Aug 09 '12 at 00:19

words pronounced with their letters reversed

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