well as someone who loves to speak English more thatn my native tongue I have to say I use both sounds depending on how formal and correct I wanna be. In swedish(native tongue) there is many s-sound variations like s sh sch ch tj tjh and a couple of more as well as r-sounds rh r er ar âr är which means I'm familiar with it. when I was 6 I had a speech impediment which made me unable to say most of the s-sounds. Instead I said the JL-sounds. Still happens when unfocused. I see it as a fun thing.
I must say, I have the same problem with my language (French). We have two syllables, "un" and "in", who are pronounced exactly the same by the vast majority of people. I'm fighting everyday to try to pronounce it properly, but it is indeed very hard.
I have noticed your "sh". I think it's very sexy. Only thing I can think of is that you may have an Irish or Scottish background. Here in Ireland, our English has been very heavily influenced by Irish Gaelic. Gaeilge is a much softer language, and an example is the sound "s" which tends to be pronounced "sh" in Gaeilge and, consequently, in English as spoken by and Irish or Scottish person.
I have to admit that the folks who add an "h" to their S bug me a little. I notished (sorry) noticed it a long time ago, primarily while listening to the radio, then on TV. I still hear it all the time. I had been thinking that was a Communications 101 way of speaking because it was so common. However, after seeing this video... I don't know. Still... it bugs me when I hear it. I guess some people just talk that way... :-)
hey at least you know they where listening very closely. Actually paying attention, but on the whole Pronunciation thing frankly my dear I just don't give a damn.
This is something I have definitely noticed! I have always said 'str'. People in the part of Minnesota I come from tend to not pronounce 'h' sounds at all, so there was little chance I would start saying 'shtr'. When I eventually met people from other parts of the country, I noticed this oddity. There DOES seem to be a cultural/regional pattern. Working class white people, particularly from the mid-atlantic states use 'shtr' as well as nearly every African-American I've encountered.
@ZJemptv Rosie sweetheart, I noticed the sh too but have considered it be just one instance of the cluster of peculiarities that I love about you. <3 . Stay with your sh. I ain't complaining.
I think this is exactly how you end up with different cultures who speak the same language speaking in different accents. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I didn't even notice before you pointed it out.
Also, to people talking about "dropping/adding the h," in spite of the spelling, that's not what's happening. The actual difference in pronunciation is a voiceless alveolar fricative becoming a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative (a slight difference in tongue location), not the addition of a sound. I know it doesn't actually make much difference to the discussion at hand, but it might help you understand the process a little better.
To the people saying it's wrong: Going against prescriptive convention does not make any manner of speech "wrong." If it did, no one here would be speaking "right." Ever. However, this phenomenon is not assimilation either; that would consist of a consonant gaining a feature of /t/, but in this case, /s/ is *losing* a feature (alveolar location) to become [ʃ]. The reason is more likely distinction, that if you did not do this the /s/ would disappear entirely, due to assimilation/deletion.
Depends on the word for me. I notice the 'shtr' sound most often following a short 'e' sound as in 'restrict' and 'destroy'. Mine isn't as pronounced as yours, and at the beginning of words, I usually pronounce it 'str'. As others have noted, it's all about tongue positioning and what is easiest for the sounds surrounding the 's'. You seem to have a very slight Boston or New England accent, yes? That may contribute.
Considering language is a fluid thing (just look at the Great Vowel Shift), I don't really see any "official" or proper way of pronunciation of words as long as it is understood by other people speaking the language. But this is coming from someone who was born in MI, USA, moved to Arkansas and learned to read in a southern dialect, then moved again and had to relearn to read "normally". After being teased in both moves for dialectal differences which are arbitrary to begin with... yea...no.
depending on the situation sometimes /shtr/ shines through my pronunciations of /str/ words. sometimes i do it on purpose to add humor to the situation, as in "shleep" or "shchool". however, usually i exclude the /h/ from my pronunciation of these words.
i don't believe that you should worry too much about it. you get your point across no matter how you pronounce these words, and i didn't even notice that you pronounced them that way until i saw this video.
I first noticed the "shtr" instead of "st" sound about 15 years ago. It seemed to me, and still does, that almost all black people use the "shtr". (This is not a racist comment, just an observation.) I also noticed years before then that many male, probably white, radio and television announcers pronounced "s" as "sh". I thought then they were trying not to sound effeminate or sibilant. (This is not a homophobic comment.)
To me, it just sounds like you're not opening your mouth when you talk... like you're talking through you teeth (instead of between, I guess). Personally, I don't take offense. To those who do, though... do you get pissed off at people with accents? Or Asians who can't pronounce the "L" sound?
If you're not bothered by accents, why does ZJ bother you so much? People speak differently. GET OVER IT! It's not the end of the bloody world... It's not like you can't understand him, after all...
Stephen Colbert does this too. Interesting phenomenon, and mostly an American one that has gained popularity over the past 20-30 years. It's been said that it sounds more 'shtreet' than the stuffy, hypercorrect way of doing it. You're probably also familiar with YTer Thunderfoot, who is a British chappie, but sounds like he has acquired the /shtr/ sound and a few other odd Americanisms.
Sorry - boring linguistics major. It's hard for me not to notice these things.
By the way, it's interesting that in the middle of this video where you say the word "understand", I can't discern the variation in pronunciation. It sounds just like /s/ to me.
I am probably the only linguistics major commenting on here, so I'll have a go.
First of all, this variation seems to occur (not only in English, but in other languages also) particularly often in people of Jewish heritage. If your family is Jewish, that might explain it.
Also, assimilation has something to do with the position of the sounds you produce, that is, where your tongue makes contact with the rest of your mouth. So if you are assimilating these sounds, it tells something about where
(cont'd) you pronounce the "t" sound. The standard pronunciation of /t/ in English is alveolar or even dental, that is, the tongue touches the teeth or the alveolar ridge. You seem to pronouce it more as a postalveolar sound, which is also where the "sh" sound is pronounced. Therefore, you assimilate the /s/ into /sh/. A cause for this other than more or less random cultural or regional variation, might be that your tongue is short. You'd have to study the tongues of your ancestors to find out.
I did notice it, however I never saw it as a problem. I just thought it might be as well an accent or w/e. some people just have way too much time on their hands to bring this up as a problem, really
I noticed the shtr pronunciation right away. As someone who hails from the South, and now resides in California, I can say I have only heard it from these videos and very, very drunk people. I assumed it was a speech impediment or something wrong with your audio equipment; I certainly had no idea it was a non-unique variation. Huh. Off to research mode!
I know this is an old video, but one phonetic change in pronunciation I've noticed in English is when a word beginning with the "yoo" sound is spoken right after a word ending in "t." The words are often combined with a "ch" sound.
The most common example of this occurrence is "Donchew," which is actually read, "Don't you."
I noticed your interesting "shtr" sound immediately. I grew up in southern California and I say it without the sh. I simply say a clear st sound. I just assumed it was a normal variant for your region of the country. I didn't think it was wrong or weird. Rather, I thought it was very nice and unique for you. But I knew you were not Californian right away. As a Californian, I have a strong "er" sound at the end of words, like in the word "sure", which sounds more like "sher."
My grandma and a lot of my relatives who come from County Clare in Ireland often pronounce the letter "s" as a "sh" sound, for example in the word "stick" ("shtick"), or "pissed" ("pished").
I noticed this variant pronunciation for the first time when I started watching your videos recently. I’m very interested in linguistics, and in phonetics and phonology in particular, so I found it highly fascinating.
Someone I know pronounces /s/ in (probably) all environments slightly retroflexively, but that, she says, is an idiosyncrasy she acquired from another family member and most likely completely unrelated.
You have probably long done so, but feeding “str ʃtr” into Google Scholar yields at least one interesting study of the phenomenon. I’m not surprised that they found the [ʃtr] pronunciation to be most prevalent among working-class people, but, not being a native speaker, I have only a very tenuous gut feeling on this matter.
Typically any accent (and General American is just another accent) very quickly affects the listeners’ unconscious characterization of the speaker, as the accent is often apparent after seconds, but you’d have to try very hard to keep someone in the belief that you are uneducated for more than those few seconds, so don’t worry. You might even construct your own accent; it’s fun. Not having a natural (English) accent, I’m doing it all the time.
whats going on here is you want to suck a wiener so very much that it is actually interfering with your normal speach patterns. ive seen this before in homosexuals who have developed a lisp because they so desperately crave cock, i regret to inform you that there is no known cure and your condition and it will progress with age.
@dav37777777 - Wow, Dr. Dav. What quality medical advice. You're obviously a trained professional in medicine and psychology, so I'm sure you know aaall about being in denial. Hopefully the term "ad hominem" has also cropped up at some point.
@FibonaziProductions The ad hominem is not always fallacious, for in some instances questions of personal conduct, character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue. you homosexuals are just way too sensitive. this was meant as a joke so dont get your panties in a wad.
@FibonaziProductions yes zj makes cool videos. you videos are not bad either. what i like about you is you remind me of a baby gibbon. i agree with most of what zj has to say but on the issue of abortion i am 50/50 on that. and i lean more towards being an agnostic because i find that atheism is an untenable position to defend as it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods.
@dav37777777 - "as it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods"
Is it impossible to prove or disprove the existence of unicorns? No, we know that they are false because they were created as a colourful myth. We could verify the existence of unicorns if we just saw one. So we can both verify and falsify the unicorn claim easily. The same goes for God. He is just a myth, like all the other gods. We could prove him if we ever saw him.
Brits, usually considered better speakers than Americans, add fuckin R sounds between words that end in vowels and words that begin with them (just listen to any Oasis song, he'll say shit like "champagne *supernover* in the sky"), so this really isn't that bad. Incidentally, I have a weird compulsion to pronounce every word as its spelled as long as that pronunciation is listed in the dictionary even if it's a rare pronunciation, so I say shit like "February" instead of "Febyuary."
@xx99Username99xx - Hey, the American accent actually came first. Our British accent came afterwards. I don't consider myself a better speaker than Americans; they just have different pronounciation. The bigger divide in England tends to be between northerners, typically considered vulgar, and us southerners, typically considered posh, which isn't noticeable when you're surrounded by other southerners.
@FibonaziProductions I just wanted to make the point that pronunciations, dialects, etc. are all pretty arbitrary, at least for languages like English that have nothing resembling phonetic spelling. (It's a bit different for, say, Spanish, where the spelling makes the correct pronunciation pretty obvious.) So things like ebonics and southern drolls shouldn't be frowned on when even the dialect of the language's original speakers contains inexplicable peculiarities.
@xx99Username99xx - I know what you mean about Spanish; it's the same in Latin, once you've got to grips with the pronounciation, it's very difficult to mispronounce anything by accident. "Pronounce EVERY SINGLE LETTER" is a pretty easy rule for even a bottom-grade monoglot to follow.
You know, I hear a lot of Americans calling people southerners, but I almost never hear it in England. I guess it's because the political divide in America between North and South is stronger, whereas in England, not so much separates us.
As far as I can tell, my spouse and I both say "str". But the "tr" sounds like "chr", so who are any of us kidding? Nobody I know says "tr" as if they're simply removing the first vowel from tyrant or torrent. So I guess my final answer is /s-chr/.
I pronounce it "shtr". It's very difficult for me to say a word like "straight" without adding the "sh" sound, especially because I've got a bit of a lisp. My pronounciation is never very clear. It's something I'm trying to work on, though. (living in the South doesn't help with my speech...)
I didn't even notice it until this video. So, it isn't severe. I used to have a very bad lisp, so I'd seriously fuck up pronouncing stuff. It is something that can provide great amusement to people, and so can be an incentive to try to fix it. I've been successful in at least reducing it, or else it is just something that hasn't been brought up in a long time.
Well, in German, when a word begins with "st" "sl" or "sp" it is pronounced as an "sh" sound... viel Spaß, bis spater, etc. It may be a hereditary thing. Do you have any Scandinavian ancestors? Itmay have been something that was passed down. i wouldn't worry about it... But keep up the good works ;-)
You're right with the German pronounciation of 'st' and 'sp'. So when we started learning English in school, this was the first thing the teacher told us to get rid of: the German 'sht' or 'shp' pronounciation. ZJ really sounds kind of 'German' with these sounds; I noticed that too.
I too have noticed your pronunciation of str as sounding shtr and was trying to think of a tactful way of calling it to your attention but you beat me to it by making a video out of it. It's the SNL "Baba Wawa" syndrome. Other than that, your perfect.
Ususlly, i say it as STR But sometimes i slip and pronounce it shtr. It is a common occurance and there is nothing "shtrange" about it. But does it really matter?
In a combination of S and T in Swedish, the position of the tongue is practically the same for the consonants, only S is a fricative and T a plosive, making the pronunciation light and correct. In English however, the position of the tongue when pronouncing S is closer to the teeth than T, and for plosives not to sound horrible when speaking relatively fast, one would instead have to adjust the S, pushing the tongue further back, which might rather resemble the SH sound.
It's the same with T; in Swedish, we pronounce it by putting the blade of the tongue to the alveola and the tip between the upper and lower teeth, while in English, instead the tip of the tongue points up the alveola.
Being experienced with over five different languages, I recognize that the S sound in (American) English is generally thicker than in other languages, such as Swedish and German. This pronuncial "thickness" is caused by any (but just one) side of the blade of the tongue ranging a distance farther from the back of the superior upper teeth than in the S sounds in Swedish and German (for instance).
i had a similar problem when i started taking speech classes as part of my training as an actor. despite being raised in texas, i had no discernible accent, and yet i replaced the standard dentalized theta sound (like the first sound in 'thin') in the word 'thank' with the voiced 'th' (like in 'then'). i figured it was my parents' fault, but oddly, neither of them did it. my sister does, though. she's still the only other person i know who pronounces 'thank' this way. mysteries.
The only thing constant about language, any language, is change. And any attempts to prevent a language from doing so is an arbitrary imposition. If you are interested in this and other linguistic phenomena you should check out "Story of Human Language" by John McWhorter (The Teaching Company). I found it engaging, witty, and brilliantly taught. No association here with the author or the company. Just thought it fascinating and relevant.
You sound fine... Ask them to get hearing tests the 's' sound is most fundamental in between 7kHz and 13kHz. Higher frequencies are lost first and 's' and' t' sounds can sound like 'f' and 'p' when hearing is diminished to 7kHz or below.
I didn't even notice until I caught this. Now it's very noticeable. LOL
It's okay I have a hard time saying huge it comes out uge. But I say human, humid, etc. pronouncing the hu in that. I know it's not exactly the same but it's a family thing too. But there are a number of other words we struggle to pronounce. I don't think there is really any phonetic links between them though.
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It sounds uneducated to say it "shtr" in American English, Jodie Foster or not. It's just plain incorrect to say it as "shtr". It's not "assimilation" to say it like this, it's not charming, it's not cute, it's just sloppy speaking and lazy articulation that you've picked up. It's wrong. Stop the plague of lazy lips: Say it right: it's STR. THERE IS NO 'H'!!!
I don't know about this, your perspective on it seems pretty contrary to the apparently widespread acceptance and use of it as a variation that isn't particularly significant either way.
I'm with ZJemptv--as a linguist variations like this help us understand the acoustics of speech, but any value you place on them is purely socially defined. It's pretty similar to the "pen" (can rhyme with kin or 10) or "milk" (rhymes with bilk or elk) distinctions.
@ZJemptv I know this is about 8 months late, but in response to comments about people telling you how to speak, you should read up on Descriptivism and Prescriptivsm in linguistics.
@ZJemptv No offense ZJ, I'm a big fan, and I honestly never noticed before ( But now I notice every time, thank you so much ) but I did get a laugh out of that little example clip you played with all the "shtr" in it.
a.) It's not uneducated to say 'shtr' in English. It may not be considered 'American Standard English', nevertheless it is not incorrect to say... b.) It is assimilation, the standard (str-) pronunciation, [stɹ], has undergone a phonological change of palatalisation, whereby the alveolar fricative /s/ anticipates the retroflex nature of / ɹ /, i.e. we would never say [sri], but [shri]. Assimilation occurs all the time as in 'please say it' sounds like /pli:sai;et/ vs. /pliz:sai:It/. : )
And [shtr] occurs regionally as well. I noticed it with my niece and stupidly tried to correct her. It wasn't until I moved to Hawaii that I noticed many people pronounce /str/-->[shtr]. Hawaii is also where my niece is from. [shtr] is also prevalent in areas of England, e.g. London. Along with [shtu] and [tchu] for stupid and tuna respectively. Needlessly to say I no longer try to correct my niece, because maybe it is I, who says street incorrectly.
@JayeMiller4097 there's only one flaw in your argument : he's not american. So if you haven't heard the term already, look up "accent" in the dictionary. If not, drop your American accent, because British English is the original pronunciation, and is therefore more "correct". assuming English did have a central language authority.
In germany str is always shtr. so american pronunciation would be wrong. It's just how language develops. shtr is easier to say if you are talking fast.
but the "st" is pronounced "sht" (usually) only when the "st" is at the Beginning of a Word(or the radical). Words like "konstruieren" are spoken with a sharp "s"
A German origin of this habit would also not explain the "Garatsh"
Ich hab auch nicht gemeint, dass es aus Deutschland kommt, ich hab das deutsche s als Beispiel angeführt und dass die schs ihm scheinbar leichter fallen.
Yeah, I would think it would stem from Germanic influence regionally or otherwise. I personally haven't noticed it. Being that America early on, did have a lot of German settlements, maybe it was passed down regionally. Sometimes I pick up "accents" after living in a region for a number of years. After all, English is a Germanic Language.
As English is not my first language, I can only point out, that here in Germany I know of nobody who speaks it "shtr" - but when you learn a foreign language u usually learn the standardized version and not any regional variety. On the other hand, all Germanic languages have a common origin - and in that proto-Germanic "str" was probably always pronounced "shtr" for in German st (even when no r is following) is always pronounced "sht" - except for foreign loan words like greek "stigma",etc.
Of course it is wrong to describe Sean Connery, ZJ or Jodie Foster as having 'Speech impediments' since none of them have an organic defect or psychological problem preventing clear articulation as far as I know.
As pointed out by draagon66 Sean Connery also pronounces 'Str' as 'Shtr'. The Scottish also tend to emphasise their 'R's' compared with the English, though not as much as in certain parts of America. Connery's 'Worshening Speech Impediment', famously pointed out by Sickboy in Trainspotting, may be the result of his closer association with America and the language.
Hi zj. It seems to my English ears that your 'str' pronunciation is very similar to Jodie Foster's.
It is quite common for Americans to have this charming perculiarity, more so than in England. I believe (and it is only a guess) that it is because of the extra emphasis that Americans put on their 'R's' and the toungue shape that is formed because of that.
The 'shtr' syndrome is a common one which, as a voice teacher serving those who wish to make a career in public speaking/singing, we frequently address. You won't find professional actors, newscasters or other speechifiers adding the 'h' where it doesn't exist. While you're mastering the elimination of the extra h's, you might also address your tendency to talk on your fry zone, which is more problematic since it will prematurely deteriorate your voice over time. Good luck!
Linguistics isn't my field, but I was a German major, and I'm willing to bet it came from German immigrants in America, because in German, "s" followed by a hard consonant will turn the "s" into "sh." This isn't really a dialect thing either; my German professors would correct me when I didn't use the "sh" sound.
lol @ "I have not invented a new way to ruin the English language" :-)
Here in the UK you find both variations. Personally I say "street" rather than "shtreet".
The most pervasive kind of 'assimilation' I know of is the one where ty becomes ch, donchu know?
There's a related phenomenon, not sure what it's called, where you just invent a consonant that's not even there. As in RHPS where Richard O'Brien says "magenta r and myself".
The French do it too: "Y a-t-il" rather than "Y a il"
For likely similar reasons to your (and those around you) pronunciation, I pronounce it w/o the /shtr/
I didn't detect this difference in your speech, so I probably didn't detect it in others.
In fact aside from accents, the only speech pattern difference I've been aware of is substituting the slang /gunna/ with /fenna/ which was popular with certain girls I knew that lived in Chicago or were friends of those girls.
hmmm ive always consistered myself to be well spoken. Hell, Ive even had to take diction classes for when I was doing the perfomance of "The importance of being earnest" and all characters had to have mostly perfect diction. But ive just noticed that yes i do still say shtraight. So i wouldnt call it a speech impediment. It can happen to the best of us. By the way, my least favorate words: EnviRONment. GoverNment, FebRUary lol
Whilst when you say "street" individually it does not sound all that forced, when coupled with other words in a sentence I can see how it might seem slightly out of place. I personally pronounce the /str/ sound as it is, however I do pronounce vowel sounds such as /ou/ differently. Eg, "pronounce" becomes "pro-nao-unce". I've noticed most people where I am say it "pro-noun-ce". I havn't heard of this happening anywhere else.
When you say "shtreet" it sounds to me like you have a speech defect, but since you don't say the "sh" in other combinations, I guess it isn't a speech defect.
When you try to say "street" without the "sh-" in your video, it sounds OK to me. You say it sounds forced, but to me, it sounds fine, definitely better than "shtreet".
I just noticed that I have a difficult time pronouncing warmth without the p sound. Probably everyone pronounces some words or phonemes in an unorthodox fashion, then of course there are regional accents to take into account.
i use the "str" pronunciation, but i had to be in speech therapy when i was little because of an injury, so i have always enunciated things with great caution. but it is very common place around my work to use "shtr"
It's extremely hard for me to say shtreet. I have to really elongate the "sh" sound, probably to about double its proper length.
But I never noticed the way you say it, and even if I had I don't think it's a mistake any more than I think any of the variety of english accents are mistakes.
Linguistics is a really interesting topic though. I can't stop saying "street."
Most would say that you have a speech impediment and a while ago I would have agreed but since I took cultural/ environmental english I now think differently. I notice people saying street with the 'shtr' sound alot here in missouri but when I visited maine for christmas i noticed my family there said the 'str' part right but they usually pronounced the last part 'ait' so it sounded like they were saying 'strait'. I think it all depends on who you are around and how they talk.
hmm. I have to dissagree with you here. It is NOT a natural assimilation. Any speachtherapist will tell you it sounds like the result of a lisp (which is a speachimpediment (spelling?) even though we can understand you perfectly well). An exemple of a natural assimilation is found in the word "bank" where the "n" gets pronounced as a "ng". I've noticed that you have a (very) slight lisp on all your S-es just not as strong as when you say "str".
I didn't mean it in any bad way. ZJ seems to be a person who likes to have his facts straight so I gave him the facts and complimented him on his efforts.
I am pretty sure you don't have the funds to make the trip all the way over here, so I don't have to worry about your cum coming anywhere near me. :)
I'm sure you think I should be flattered though. :)
Ok this is rather embarrassing, I'd like to apologise to you and to ZJ for saying he was female earlier, I just assumed that cause of the lipstick and earrings.. Sorry!
I believe pronunciation is very important, I was brought up that way.
I don't hold it against people who don't speak perfectly but I would be lying if I said I didn't notice it.
If we let our language become a little lazy no I guess it doesn't matter all that much but over a few hundred years it might change our language a lot, or not. I don't know
I pronounce it with "str." I was raised in an abusive environment, where I was forced to write, and speak "properly." Personally I think neither of these things matter, as long as communication is possible as intended. The most important thing is to be happy, I think, and speech is such a small thing to be concerned with in the grand scheme of things.
This effect happens frequently in various consonant combinations. Anyone can note, on reflection, that it is easier for the mouth to go from 'sh' to 't' than it is to go from 's' to 't.' This is because the sounds of 's' and 't' are vocalized using the same part of the mouth (tip of the tongue in the front of the mouth), which causes that part to work overtime to produce distinct sounds back to back. 'Sh' is further back on the tongue and 't' is in the front making this combination easier.
I use /str/. After all - that is the way those words are spelled. Why would you want to throw an "h" in there? You would think that people in England would pronounce words correctly since that's where the English language started, but they butcher all kinds of words like "Chewsday" instead of "Tuesday" and "shedule" instead of "schedule". Not to mention that they rarely pronounce the letter "R" at the end of words.
How you pronounce words is majorly influenced of your growing up situation. A child repeats everything it hears, no matter if its spelled properly or not. Its something we dont even are aware of, because for us its natural, we learned it that way. And to change things like that...nearly impossible :)
I pronounce it "str", but that could be because I'm Swedish and pronouncing a word like "strand" (Swedish for beach) as "shtrand" would sound very odd.
I have actually heard a lot of people with English as their mother tounge pronounce Swedish str-words as "shtr".
I'm an str girl, but I have one friend who uses the shtr. I've never heard anyone but you and him use it, but I don't have any trouble understanding it.
I guess that I don't say "display"; I say "dis-PLAY". It just depends on how you hear it on a regular basis. Why do some southerners say "erl" instead of "oil"? It's because that's how they heard it when they learned the word.
I, like yourself, always try to speak extremely clearly, something I tried to perfect in drama classes and stage productions through high school and college. I've always though I had a "neutral" accent and that my pronunciation was very correct, but recently I was told I pronounce "pillow" more like "pellow" sometimes. I've tried to correct this, but the two pronunciations are SO similar, it's difficult to tell whether I'm saying it correctly or not.
i pronounce it ...."str"...ZJ.........but thats not what really matters..........what matters is that i havent had my SRS, as of this date and still have some boy parts and you just made me come all over myself .........i usually dont like giving creedence to that physical aspect of myself .....but i guess from now on i'll have to watch you with a condom on...........thanks a fuckin heck of alot sis.....................I LOVE YOU
For me, I usually pronounce tree as "chree", truck as "chruck", true as "chrue" and so on. It's actually really cool because I'm just as comfortable pronouncing them the way they are spelled.
Personally i use the str sound as that's what i've been taught (beeing an eoropean). But actually i think it sounds cooler with the sht pronunciation.
After about fifteen seconds--yes, seconds--of experimentation, it seems to stem from whether you're pronouncing the sound from the front of your teeth or the back.
Personally, I pronounce it "str", from the front of the teeth.
well as someone who loves to speak English more thatn my native tongue I have to say I use both sounds depending on how formal and correct I wanna be. In swedish(native tongue) there is many s-sound variations like s sh sch ch tj tjh and a couple of more as well as r-sounds rh r er ar âr är which means I'm familiar with it. when I was 6 I had a speech impediment which made me unable to say most of the s-sounds. Instead I said the JL-sounds. Still happens when unfocused. I see it as a fun thing.
livedandletdie 2 weeks ago in playlist More videos from ZJemptv
I must say, I have the same problem with my language (French). We have two syllables, "un" and "in", who are pronounced exactly the same by the vast majority of people. I'm fighting everyday to try to pronounce it properly, but it is indeed very hard.
GamblingDementor 1 month ago
I have noticed your "sh". I think it's very sexy. Only thing I can think of is that you may have an Irish or Scottish background. Here in Ireland, our English has been very heavily influenced by Irish Gaelic. Gaeilge is a much softer language, and an example is the sound "s" which tends to be pronounced "sh" in Gaeilge and, consequently, in English as spoken by and Irish or Scottish person.
NUADAmacnechtan 1 month ago
I have to admit that the folks who add an "h" to their S bug me a little. I notished (sorry) noticed it a long time ago, primarily while listening to the radio, then on TV. I still hear it all the time. I had been thinking that was a Communications 101 way of speaking because it was so common. However, after seeing this video... I don't know. Still... it bugs me when I hear it. I guess some people just talk that way... :-)
jeff838200 4 months ago
You know it's funny I never noticed it myself until you brought it up.
scotchirishkathy 4 months ago
hey at least you know they where listening very closely. Actually paying attention, but on the whole Pronunciation thing frankly my dear I just don't give a damn.
I mean you guys can't even say tomato.
way2jaded1 4 months ago
i wanted to ask you about that , and if you do that on purpose, or if that s just the way you speak. it doesn t bother me, but i realized .
workescapist 5 months ago
ZJ just to put my $.02 in you're pronouncing it in the same way as Sean Connery.
If it's good enough for James Bond, it's good enough for me! :)
schachtelw 6 months ago
It became a trend when Michelle Obama became known. She blame her? personally, it drives me nuts
janobrindisi 6 months ago
This is something I have definitely noticed! I have always said 'str'. People in the part of Minnesota I come from tend to not pronounce 'h' sounds at all, so there was little chance I would start saying 'shtr'. When I eventually met people from other parts of the country, I noticed this oddity. There DOES seem to be a cultural/regional pattern. Working class white people, particularly from the mid-atlantic states use 'shtr' as well as nearly every African-American I've encountered.
Uarehere 7 months ago
@ZJemptv Rosie sweetheart, I noticed the sh too but have considered it be just one instance of the cluster of peculiarities that I love about you. <3 . Stay with your sh. I ain't complaining.
azzy314159 7 months ago 4
I think this is exactly how you end up with different cultures who speak the same language speaking in different accents. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I didn't even notice before you pointed it out.
TheCeejReturns 8 months ago
very articulate chair back
marasu66 8 months ago
HE IS INVISIBLE
Midretalias1 9 months ago
STR, SHTR, who cares? You just sound cute saying it. :)
koantin 9 months ago
Also, to people talking about "dropping/adding the h," in spite of the spelling, that's not what's happening. The actual difference in pronunciation is a voiceless alveolar fricative becoming a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative (a slight difference in tongue location), not the addition of a sound. I know it doesn't actually make much difference to the discussion at hand, but it might help you understand the process a little better.
tildessmoo 9 months ago
To the people saying it's wrong: Going against prescriptive convention does not make any manner of speech "wrong." If it did, no one here would be speaking "right." Ever. However, this phenomenon is not assimilation either; that would consist of a consonant gaining a feature of /t/, but in this case, /s/ is *losing* a feature (alveolar location) to become [ʃ]. The reason is more likely distinction, that if you did not do this the /s/ would disappear entirely, due to assimilation/deletion.
tildessmoo 9 months ago
I say it "normally".
Aresftfun 10 months ago
Well in the German language "st" is pronounced "Shtr". That is what I can tell.
kmortk 10 months ago
Depends on the word for me. I notice the 'shtr' sound most often following a short 'e' sound as in 'restrict' and 'destroy'. Mine isn't as pronounced as yours, and at the beginning of words, I usually pronounce it 'str'. As others have noted, it's all about tongue positioning and what is easiest for the sounds surrounding the 's'. You seem to have a very slight Boston or New England accent, yes? That may contribute.
AggieWolverine 10 months ago
I do the same thing O.o I didn't think there was anything abnormal about it.
jjuggaloparkour 11 months ago
Considering language is a fluid thing (just look at the Great Vowel Shift), I don't really see any "official" or proper way of pronunciation of words as long as it is understood by other people speaking the language. But this is coming from someone who was born in MI, USA, moved to Arkansas and learned to read in a southern dialect, then moved again and had to relearn to read "normally". After being teased in both moves for dialectal differences which are arbitrary to begin with... yea...no.
slythoughts 11 months ago
wait! forget what I just commented!
KawaiiIchigo156 11 months ago
Maybe it's just Americans *shrugs*
KawaiiIchigo156 11 months ago
depending on the situation sometimes /shtr/ shines through my pronunciations of /str/ words. sometimes i do it on purpose to add humor to the situation, as in "shleep" or "shchool". however, usually i exclude the /h/ from my pronunciation of these words.
i don't believe that you should worry too much about it. you get your point across no matter how you pronounce these words, and i didn't even notice that you pronounced them that way until i saw this video.
WrathOfHanha 1 year ago
Speech we all ned it but noone can do it
heterogeneoushuman 1 year ago
I first noticed the "shtr" instead of "st" sound about 15 years ago. It seemed to me, and still does, that almost all black people use the "shtr". (This is not a racist comment, just an observation.) I also noticed years before then that many male, probably white, radio and television announcers pronounced "s" as "sh". I thought then they were trying not to sound effeminate or sibilant. (This is not a homophobic comment.)
tjjfitz 1 year ago
When listening to it in videos I don't notice it, but one after another it just sounded funny.
Bannedforfun 1 year ago
Muahahahaha, resistance is futile :D
Bulasz 1 year ago 11
To me, it just sounds like you're not opening your mouth when you talk... like you're talking through you teeth (instead of between, I guess). Personally, I don't take offense. To those who do, though... do you get pissed off at people with accents? Or Asians who can't pronounce the "L" sound?
If you're not bothered by accents, why does ZJ bother you so much? People speak differently. GET OVER IT! It's not the end of the bloody world... It's not like you can't understand him, after all...
OuroborosChoked 1 year ago
I notice it because I live in a communitee where the "s" sound in general is slurred alot.
randomchick8888 1 year ago
Stephen Colbert does this too. Interesting phenomenon, and mostly an American one that has gained popularity over the past 20-30 years. It's been said that it sounds more 'shtreet' than the stuffy, hypercorrect way of doing it. You're probably also familiar with YTer Thunderfoot, who is a British chappie, but sounds like he has acquired the /shtr/ sound and a few other odd Americanisms.
Sorry - boring linguistics major. It's hard for me not to notice these things.
youvexme 1 year ago
In German Straße (Street) is correctly pronounced Schtraße as most st-s so it was rather hard for me to not do it in english...
satananass 1 year ago
you native english speakers and your silly letters.....
get a phonetic alphabet and all will be made clear... like we have
De4sher 1 year ago
Darn...now I'm gonna noticed it.
colmonhs 1 year ago
By the way, it's interesting that in the middle of this video where you say the word "understand", I can't discern the variation in pronunciation. It sounds just like /s/ to me.
YukiNekoPrincess 1 year ago
I am probably the only linguistics major commenting on here, so I'll have a go.
First of all, this variation seems to occur (not only in English, but in other languages also) particularly often in people of Jewish heritage. If your family is Jewish, that might explain it.
Also, assimilation has something to do with the position of the sounds you produce, that is, where your tongue makes contact with the rest of your mouth. So if you are assimilating these sounds, it tells something about where
YukiNekoPrincess 1 year ago
(cont'd) you pronounce the "t" sound. The standard pronunciation of /t/ in English is alveolar or even dental, that is, the tongue touches the teeth or the alveolar ridge. You seem to pronouce it more as a postalveolar sound, which is also where the "sh" sound is pronounced. Therefore, you assimilate the /s/ into /sh/. A cause for this other than more or less random cultural or regional variation, might be that your tongue is short. You'd have to study the tongues of your ancestors to find out.
YukiNekoPrincess 1 year ago
Cmon. SHtreet? So not right imo.
jojojoroxx 1 year ago
I never even noticed however I pronounce it "str" as opposed to "shtr".
pierepresentative8 1 year ago
I did notice it, however I never saw it as a problem. I just thought it might be as well an accent or w/e. some people just have way too much time on their hands to bring this up as a problem, really
blutfrosch 1 year ago
You can speak how you like, cutie.
clintallen123 1 year ago
I noticed the shtr pronunciation right away. As someone who hails from the South, and now resides in California, I can say I have only heard it from these videos and very, very drunk people. I assumed it was a speech impediment or something wrong with your audio equipment; I certainly had no idea it was a non-unique variation. Huh. Off to research mode!
MajikkaniHand 1 year ago
I know this is an old video, but one phonetic change in pronunciation I've noticed in English is when a word beginning with the "yoo" sound is spoken right after a word ending in "t." The words are often combined with a "ch" sound.
The most common example of this occurrence is "Donchew," which is actually read, "Don't you."
indigothecat 1 year ago
I noticed your interesting "shtr" sound immediately. I grew up in southern California and I say it without the sh. I simply say a clear st sound. I just assumed it was a normal variant for your region of the country. I didn't think it was wrong or weird. Rather, I thought it was very nice and unique for you. But I knew you were not Californian right away. As a Californian, I have a strong "er" sound at the end of words, like in the word "sure", which sounds more like "sher."
pauswa1966 1 year ago
My grandma and a lot of my relatives who come from County Clare in Ireland often pronounce the letter "s" as a "sh" sound, for example in the word "stick" ("shtick"), or "pissed" ("pished").
EnvelopeGenerator 1 year ago
Amazing, I thought I was the only person who spoke with a "shtr" type sound.
Ikizami456 1 year ago
[part 1/3]
I noticed this variant pronunciation for the first time when I started watching your videos recently. I’m very interested in linguistics, and in phonetics and phonology in particular, so I found it highly fascinating.
Someone I know pronounces /s/ in (probably) all environments slightly retroflexively, but that, she says, is an idiosyncrasy she acquired from another family member and most likely completely unrelated.
telofy 1 year ago
[part 2/3]
You have probably long done so, but feeding “str ʃtr” into Google Scholar yields at least one interesting study of the phenomenon. I’m not surprised that they found the [ʃtr] pronunciation to be most prevalent among working-class people, but, not being a native speaker, I have only a very tenuous gut feeling on this matter.
telofy 1 year ago
[part 3/3]
Typically any accent (and General American is just another accent) very quickly affects the listeners’ unconscious characterization of the speaker, as the accent is often apparent after seconds, but you’d have to try very hard to keep someone in the belief that you are uneducated for more than those few seconds, so don’t worry. You might even construct your own accent; it’s fun. Not having a natural (English) accent, I’m doing it all the time.
telofy 1 year ago
whats going on here is you want to suck a wiener so very much that it is actually interfering with your normal speach patterns. ive seen this before in homosexuals who have developed a lisp because they so desperately crave cock, i regret to inform you that there is no known cure and your condition and it will progress with age.
dav37777777 1 year ago
@dav37777777 - Wow, Dr. Dav. What quality medical advice. You're obviously a trained professional in medicine and psychology, so I'm sure you know aaall about being in denial. Hopefully the term "ad hominem" has also cropped up at some point.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
@FibonaziProductions The ad hominem is not always fallacious, for in some instances questions of personal conduct, character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue. you homosexuals are just way too sensitive. this was meant as a joke so dont get your panties in a wad.
dav37777777 1 year ago
@dav37777777 - Lol. Copying and pasting wikipedia isn't as impressive as it looks.
Anyway, who says I'm homosexual? Not saying I'm not, but for all you know or care, I'm a heterosexual fan of ZJ who just loves his videos.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
@FibonaziProductions yes zj makes cool videos. you videos are not bad either. what i like about you is you remind me of a baby gibbon. i agree with most of what zj has to say but on the issue of abortion i am 50/50 on that. and i lean more towards being an agnostic because i find that atheism is an untenable position to defend as it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods.
dav37777777 1 year ago
@dav37777777 - "i lean more towards being an agnostic"
Agnostic what? You're either an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist. It doesn't mean anything by itself.
"because i find that atheism is an untenable position to defend"
Again, agnosticism and atheism aren't incompatible.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
@dav37777777 - "as it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods"
Is it impossible to prove or disprove the existence of unicorns? No, we know that they are false because they were created as a colourful myth. We could verify the existence of unicorns if we just saw one. So we can both verify and falsify the unicorn claim easily. The same goes for God. He is just a myth, like all the other gods. We could prove him if we ever saw him.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
Brits, usually considered better speakers than Americans, add fuckin R sounds between words that end in vowels and words that begin with them (just listen to any Oasis song, he'll say shit like "champagne *supernover* in the sky"), so this really isn't that bad. Incidentally, I have a weird compulsion to pronounce every word as its spelled as long as that pronunciation is listed in the dictionary even if it's a rare pronunciation, so I say shit like "February" instead of "Febyuary."
xx99Username99xx 1 year ago
@xx99Username99xx - Hey, the American accent actually came first. Our British accent came afterwards. I don't consider myself a better speaker than Americans; they just have different pronounciation. The bigger divide in England tends to be between northerners, typically considered vulgar, and us southerners, typically considered posh, which isn't noticeable when you're surrounded by other southerners.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
@FibonaziProductions I just wanted to make the point that pronunciations, dialects, etc. are all pretty arbitrary, at least for languages like English that have nothing resembling phonetic spelling. (It's a bit different for, say, Spanish, where the spelling makes the correct pronunciation pretty obvious.) So things like ebonics and southern drolls shouldn't be frowned on when even the dialect of the language's original speakers contains inexplicable peculiarities.
xx99Username99xx 1 year ago
@xx99Username99xx - I know what you mean about Spanish; it's the same in Latin, once you've got to grips with the pronounciation, it's very difficult to mispronounce anything by accident. "Pronounce EVERY SINGLE LETTER" is a pretty easy rule for even a bottom-grade monoglot to follow.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
@FibonaziProductions Typical soft bloody southerner.
logothe1st 1 year ago
@logothe1st - "Typical soft bloody southerner."
You know, I hear a lot of Americans calling people southerners, but I almost never hear it in England. I guess it's because the political divide in America between North and South is stronger, whereas in England, not so much separates us.
FibonaziProductions 1 year ago
As far as I can tell, my spouse and I both say "str". But the "tr" sounds like "chr", so who are any of us kidding? Nobody I know says "tr" as if they're simply removing the first vowel from tyrant or torrent. So I guess my final answer is /s-chr/.
HebaruSan 1 year ago
SHTR!!!!
msmalmal09 1 year ago
I pronounce it "shtr". It's very difficult for me to say a word like "straight" without adding the "sh" sound, especially because I've got a bit of a lisp. My pronounciation is never very clear. It's something I'm trying to work on, though. (living in the South doesn't help with my speech...)
spidersandbats 1 year ago
I didn't even notice it until this video. So, it isn't severe. I used to have a very bad lisp, so I'd seriously fuck up pronouncing stuff. It is something that can provide great amusement to people, and so can be an incentive to try to fix it. I've been successful in at least reducing it, or else it is just something that hasn't been brought up in a long time.
Pushtrak 1 year ago
Well, in German, when a word begins with "st" "sl" or "sp" it is pronounced as an "sh" sound... viel Spaß, bis spater, etc. It may be a hereditary thing. Do you have any Scandinavian ancestors? Itmay have been something that was passed down. i wouldn't worry about it... But keep up the good works ;-)
boyceps 1 year ago
@boyceps
You're right with the German pronounciation of 'st' and 'sp'. So when we started learning English in school, this was the first thing the teacher told us to get rid of: the German 'sht' or 'shp' pronounciation. ZJ really sounds kind of 'German' with these sounds; I noticed that too.
ab0kanal 1 year ago
I too have noticed your pronunciation of str as sounding shtr and was trying to think of a tactful way of calling it to your attention but you beat me to it by making a video out of it. It's the SNL "Baba Wawa" syndrome. Other than that, your perfect.
wardell1518 1 year ago
And jews use SH. Which is what you are. A DIRTY JEW!
HeadBangAllDay 1 year ago
I say it the way it is suppose to be said. STR.
HeadBangAllDay 1 year ago
Ususlly, i say it as STR But sometimes i slip and pronounce it shtr. It is a common occurance and there is nothing "shtrange" about it. But does it really matter?
boyceps 1 year ago
Maybe its the way you hold you mouth...?
MxTori 1 year ago
In a combination of S and T in Swedish, the position of the tongue is practically the same for the consonants, only S is a fricative and T a plosive, making the pronunciation light and correct. In English however, the position of the tongue when pronouncing S is closer to the teeth than T, and for plosives not to sound horrible when speaking relatively fast, one would instead have to adjust the S, pushing the tongue further back, which might rather resemble the SH sound.
AnubisMob 1 year ago
It's the same with T; in Swedish, we pronounce it by putting the blade of the tongue to the alveola and the tip between the upper and lower teeth, while in English, instead the tip of the tongue points up the alveola.
AnubisMob 1 year ago
Being experienced with over five different languages, I recognize that the S sound in (American) English is generally thicker than in other languages, such as Swedish and German. This pronuncial "thickness" is caused by any (but just one) side of the blade of the tongue ranging a distance farther from the back of the superior upper teeth than in the S sounds in Swedish and German (for instance).
AnubisMob 1 year ago
i had a similar problem when i started taking speech classes as part of my training as an actor. despite being raised in texas, i had no discernible accent, and yet i replaced the standard dentalized theta sound (like the first sound in 'thin') in the word 'thank' with the voiced 'th' (like in 'then'). i figured it was my parents' fault, but oddly, neither of them did it. my sister does, though. she's still the only other person i know who pronounces 'thank' this way. mysteries.
nickumsix 1 year ago
haha you did it many times in this video. i say it st
FunnyLove3 1 year ago
The only thing constant about language, any language, is change. And any attempts to prevent a language from doing so is an arbitrary imposition. If you are interested in this and other linguistic phenomena you should check out "Story of Human Language" by John McWhorter (The Teaching Company). I found it engaging, witty, and brilliantly taught. No association here with the author or the company. Just thought it fascinating and relevant.
davetoepfer 1 year ago
Comment removed
davetoepfer 1 year ago
Mnyeh, you'll never take me alive coppers, I'm Al Capone shee!
coldpawofthefurs 1 year ago
You sound fine... Ask them to get hearing tests the 's' sound is most fundamental in between 7kHz and 13kHz. Higher frequencies are lost first and 's' and' t' sounds can sound like 'f' and 'p' when hearing is diminished to 7kHz or below.
lizichell 1 year ago
Oh no! ZJ is invisible!
jimbob3332 1 year ago
I didn't even notice until I caught this. Now it's very noticeable. LOL
It's okay I have a hard time saying huge it comes out uge. But I say human, humid, etc. pronouncing the hu in that. I know it's not exactly the same but it's a family thing too. But there are a number of other words we struggle to pronounce. I don't think there is really any phonetic links between them though.
Nohname1 1 year ago
I say "Ehstreet" beacause I´m from "Ehspain".
mrfoxtalbot 1 year ago
hahaha, I do this too. As soon as you mentioned it I realized I do it too, but prior I never noticed.
davidandrew2391 2 years ago
At one point, you mention "Noshtradamus"-that was really funny; it's OK, though, everybody understands.
auriciangelescu 2 years ago
It's just like when people say "warsh" instead of "wash". My family says "warsh" but for some reason I'm the only one that says "wash".
katanaman423 2 years ago
When you say : "Would you" or "What you". You say: "WouJou" and "Whachou"...
Luiseut59 2 years ago
What comes next, prohibiting accents?
This is stupid.
founoe 2 years ago
Sean Connery does it -> it's ok
;P
phlexonance 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
It sounds uneducated to say it "shtr" in American English, Jodie Foster or not. It's just plain incorrect to say it as "shtr". It's not "assimilation" to say it like this, it's not charming, it's not cute, it's just sloppy speaking and lazy articulation that you've picked up. It's wrong. Stop the plague of lazy lips: Say it right: it's STR. THERE IS NO 'H'!!!
JayeMiller4097 2 years ago
I don't know about this, your perspective on it seems pretty contrary to the apparently widespread acceptance and use of it as a variation that isn't particularly significant either way.
ZJemptv 2 years ago 13
@ZJemptv
I'm with ZJemptv--as a linguist variations like this help us understand the acoustics of speech, but any value you place on them is purely socially defined. It's pretty similar to the "pen" (can rhyme with kin or 10) or "milk" (rhymes with bilk or elk) distinctions.
djchristopherblue 1 year ago
@ZJemptv I know this is about 8 months late, but in response to comments about people telling you how to speak, you should read up on Descriptivism and Prescriptivsm in linguistics.
camarro88 1 year ago
@ZJemptv No offense ZJ, I'm a big fan, and I honestly never noticed before ( But now I notice every time, thank you so much ) but I did get a laugh out of that little example clip you played with all the "shtr" in it.
Hyperlot 1 year ago
a.) It's not uneducated to say 'shtr' in English. It may not be considered 'American Standard English', nevertheless it is not incorrect to say... b.) It is assimilation, the standard (str-) pronunciation, [stɹ], has undergone a phonological change of palatalisation, whereby the alveolar fricative /s/ anticipates the retroflex nature of / ɹ /, i.e. we would never say [sri], but [shri]. Assimilation occurs all the time as in 'please say it' sounds like /pli:sai;et/ vs. /pliz:sai:It/. : )
Erfahrungssatz 2 years ago
And [shtr] occurs regionally as well. I noticed it with my niece and stupidly tried to correct her. It wasn't until I moved to Hawaii that I noticed many people pronounce /str/-->[shtr]. Hawaii is also where my niece is from. [shtr] is also prevalent in areas of England, e.g. London. Along with [shtu] and [tchu] for stupid and tuna respectively. Needlessly to say I no longer try to correct my niece, because maybe it is I, who says street incorrectly.
Erfahrungssatz 2 years ago
@JayeMiller4097 well if Jaye Miller says i have to change the way i speak!
i1234t1234 1 year ago
@JayeMiller4097 there's only one flaw in your argument : he's not american. So if you haven't heard the term already, look up "accent" in the dictionary. If not, drop your American accent, because British English is the original pronunciation, and is therefore more "correct". assuming English did have a central language authority.
pcdsgh 7 months ago
I didn't even notice that until your video but I have asked around and most people in my family like me say str as shtr just like you.
jaxcheetah 2 years ago
In germany str is always shtr. so american pronunciation would be wrong. It's just how language develops. shtr is easier to say if you are talking fast.
FierceRodents 2 years ago
but the "st" is pronounced "sht" (usually) only when the "st" is at the Beginning of a Word(or the radical). Words like "konstruieren" are spoken with a sharp "s"
A German origin of this habit would also not explain the "Garatsh"
DeHerg 2 years ago
Ich hab auch nicht gemeint, dass es aus Deutschland kommt, ich hab das deutsche s als Beispiel angeführt und dass die schs ihm scheinbar leichter fallen.
FierceRodents 2 years ago
shtructural dishtraction...lol.
FierceRodents 2 years ago
Yeah, I would think it would stem from Germanic influence regionally or otherwise. I personally haven't noticed it. Being that America early on, did have a lot of German settlements, maybe it was passed down regionally. Sometimes I pick up "accents" after living in a region for a number of years. After all, English is a Germanic Language.
john422401 2 years ago
As English is not my first language, I can only point out, that here in Germany I know of nobody who speaks it "shtr" - but when you learn a foreign language u usually learn the standardized version and not any regional variety. On the other hand, all Germanic languages have a common origin - and in that proto-Germanic "str" was probably always pronounced "shtr" for in German st (even when no r is following) is always pronounced "sht" - except for foreign loan words like greek "stigma",etc.
Vilarum 2 years ago
Of course it is wrong to describe Sean Connery, ZJ or Jodie Foster as having 'Speech impediments' since none of them have an organic defect or psychological problem preventing clear articulation as far as I know.
corksmusic1 2 years ago
As pointed out by draagon66 Sean Connery also pronounces 'Str' as 'Shtr'. The Scottish also tend to emphasise their 'R's' compared with the English, though not as much as in certain parts of America. Connery's 'Worshening Speech Impediment', famously pointed out by Sickboy in Trainspotting, may be the result of his closer association with America and the language.
corksmusic1 2 years ago
Comment removed
corksmusic1 2 years ago
Hi zj. It seems to my English ears that your 'str' pronunciation is very similar to Jodie Foster's.
It is quite common for Americans to have this charming perculiarity, more so than in England. I believe (and it is only a guess) that it is because of the extra emphasis that Americans put on their 'R's' and the toungue shape that is formed because of that.
corksmusic1 2 years ago
I pronounce it [str] and I think that you have an accent (not very pronounced), though from where I am not sure.
klutterkicker 2 years ago
The 'shtr' syndrome is a common one which, as a voice teacher serving those who wish to make a career in public speaking/singing, we frequently address. You won't find professional actors, newscasters or other speechifiers adding the 'h' where it doesn't exist. While you're mastering the elimination of the extra h's, you might also address your tendency to talk on your fry zone, which is more problematic since it will prematurely deteriorate your voice over time. Good luck!
4inhand 2 years ago
Linguistics isn't my field, but I was a German major, and I'm willing to bet it came from German immigrants in America, because in German, "s" followed by a hard consonant will turn the "s" into "sh." This isn't really a dialect thing either; my German professors would correct me when I didn't use the "sh" sound.
aharpole 2 years ago
yeah... i do the s-tr... not the sh-tr...
galaxypirate 2 years ago
That;s stupid. So you say Sh instead of S. Most americans say D instead of T. When I was learning english I said F instead of TH. So what?
dragonofthedarknight 2 years ago
lol @ "I have not invented a new way to ruin the English language" :-)
Here in the UK you find both variations. Personally I say "street" rather than "shtreet".
The most pervasive kind of 'assimilation' I know of is the one where ty becomes ch, donchu know?
There's a related phenomenon, not sure what it's called, where you just invent a consonant that's not even there. As in RHPS where Richard O'Brien says "magenta r and myself".
The French do it too: "Y a-t-il" rather than "Y a il"
AlephNeil 2 years ago
alle-Deutschsprachigen-esque...
German word for 'street', for example (Straße-->"shtraw`ſſə")
Victamonn 2 years ago
For likely similar reasons to your (and those around you) pronunciation, I pronounce it w/o the /shtr/
I didn't detect this difference in your speech, so I probably didn't detect it in others.
In fact aside from accents, the only speech pattern difference I've been aware of is substituting the slang /gunna/ with /fenna/ which was popular with certain girls I knew that lived in Chicago or were friends of those girls.
chaosvii 2 years ago
I thought every one pronounced it shtraight. Dishtraction :)
HEIBAOSHEN 2 years ago
I don't think it really matters and frankly I'm surprised people even had the time to bring it up.. xD
FollyxXxFallen 2 years ago 9
Nice borg reference :)
gagnashdiak 2 years ago
hmmm ive always consistered myself to be well spoken. Hell, Ive even had to take diction classes for when I was doing the perfomance of "The importance of being earnest" and all characters had to have mostly perfect diction. But ive just noticed that yes i do still say shtraight. So i wouldnt call it a speech impediment. It can happen to the best of us. By the way, my least favorate words: EnviRONment. GoverNment, FebRUary lol
crimsonlondon 2 years ago
Whilst when you say "street" individually it does not sound all that forced, when coupled with other words in a sentence I can see how it might seem slightly out of place. I personally pronounce the /str/ sound as it is, however I do pronounce vowel sounds such as /ou/ differently. Eg, "pronounce" becomes "pro-nao-unce". I've noticed most people where I am say it "pro-noun-ce". I havn't heard of this happening anywhere else.
TalynCo 2 years ago
When you say "shtreet" it sounds to me like you have a speech defect, but since you don't say the "sh" in other combinations, I guess it isn't a speech defect.
When you try to say "street" without the "sh-" in your video, it sounds OK to me. You say it sounds forced, but to me, it sounds fine, definitely better than "shtreet".
I'm a New Zealander BTW.
KrisBlueNZ 2 years ago
ohh i shee doesnt shound like u r trying
emochickooo 2 years ago
hmmm im not sure if you are aware of this but "see" and "sound" dont have "tr" in either of those words. haha! dont you look like a dumn ass!
crimsonlondon 2 years ago
SH XD
It sounds better than my "s"
TheReasonWhyGuy 2 years ago
This may be similar to pronouncing warmth as warmpth.
ChristopherAtheist 2 years ago
I just noticed that I have a difficult time pronouncing warmth without the p sound. Probably everyone pronounces some words or phonemes in an unorthodox fashion, then of course there are regional accents to take into account.
dowekeller 2 years ago
i use the "str" pronunciation, but i had to be in speech therapy when i was little because of an injury, so i have always enunciated things with great caution. but it is very common place around my work to use "shtr"
havoc201253 2 years ago
Holy shit... I do it too! O_O
Vwassel 2 years ago
It sounds kind of cute and it`s definatedly
not something you should bother removing or anything :)
northernRpgLover25 2 years ago
It's extremely hard for me to say shtreet. I have to really elongate the "sh" sound, probably to about double its proper length.
But I never noticed the way you say it, and even if I had I don't think it's a mistake any more than I think any of the variety of english accents are mistakes.
Linguistics is a really interesting topic though. I can't stop saying "street."
searenee 2 years ago
Most would say that you have a speech impediment and a while ago I would have agreed but since I took cultural/ environmental english I now think differently. I notice people saying street with the 'shtr' sound alot here in missouri but when I visited maine for christmas i noticed my family there said the 'str' part right but they usually pronounced the last part 'ait' so it sounded like they were saying 'strait'. I think it all depends on who you are around and how they talk.
HanselxAtexGretel 2 years ago
Is that a binaural beat pattern in the background?
ToBeOrNotToBeThatGuy 2 years ago
Oh great, now I'm going to be conscious of this every time I speak and won't be able to stop thinking about it.
JMelo19 2 years ago
wow i never noticed it but i do the exact same thing. hmm.
goodlittlewitch2006 2 years ago
hmm. I have to dissagree with you here. It is NOT a natural assimilation. Any speachtherapist will tell you it sounds like the result of a lisp (which is a speachimpediment (spelling?) even though we can understand you perfectly well). An exemple of a natural assimilation is found in the word "bank" where the "n" gets pronounced as a "ng". I've noticed that you have a (very) slight lisp on all your S-es just not as strong as when you say "str".
Your 'forced' versions sounded very clean/good.:D
Lamondra 2 years ago
Wow. You're a douchebag. I want to cum on your face.
TheMortisOlafShow 2 years ago
I didn't mean it in any bad way. ZJ seems to be a person who likes to have his facts straight so I gave him the facts and complimented him on his efforts.
I am pretty sure you don't have the funds to make the trip all the way over here, so I don't have to worry about your cum coming anywhere near me. :)
I'm sure you think I should be flattered though. :)
Lamondra 2 years ago
Comment removed
Sorraiya 2 years ago
Ok this is rather embarrassing, I'd like to apologise to you and to ZJ for saying he was female earlier, I just assumed that cause of the lipstick and earrings.. Sorry!
Sorraiya 2 years ago
"When I try to say "straight" it sounds forced and unnatural"
HA Haaa Haa !!!! ROFLMAO !!!
nolobede 2 years ago 2
lmao.
MollyMassacree 2 years ago
I believe pronunciation is very important, I was brought up that way.
I don't hold it against people who don't speak perfectly but I would be lying if I said I didn't notice it.
If we let our language become a little lazy no I guess it doesn't matter all that much but over a few hundred years it might change our language a lot, or not. I don't know
BekeLuzzette 2 years ago 2
"s will be assimilated into 'sh.' resistance is futile"
hahahaha
DethFromAbv 2 years ago 2
I pronounce it with "str." I was raised in an abusive environment, where I was forced to write, and speak "properly." Personally I think neither of these things matter, as long as communication is possible as intended. The most important thing is to be happy, I think, and speech is such a small thing to be concerned with in the grand scheme of things.
Ezm23 2 years ago
Hi ZJ, long time no talk. How you doing?
ScrewAttackChina 2 years ago
This effect happens frequently in various consonant combinations. Anyone can note, on reflection, that it is easier for the mouth to go from 'sh' to 't' than it is to go from 's' to 't.' This is because the sounds of 's' and 't' are vocalized using the same part of the mouth (tip of the tongue in the front of the mouth), which causes that part to work overtime to produce distinct sounds back to back. 'Sh' is further back on the tongue and 't' is in the front making this combination easier.
GwydionMapDon 2 years ago
I am not very sure how to categorize my pronunciation.
My 'str' is somewhere in between my hard 's' and 'sh'
millinao 2 years ago
lmao i love ur videos!!
BarrettTV 2 years ago
At least you don't say "LIKE" 5 times in every sentence. That like drives me like crazy to have to like listen to that.. OK 4 times.
want2bacat 2 years ago
I use /str/. After all - that is the way those words are spelled. Why would you want to throw an "h" in there? You would think that people in England would pronounce words correctly since that's where the English language started, but they butcher all kinds of words like "Chewsday" instead of "Tuesday" and "shedule" instead of "schedule". Not to mention that they rarely pronounce the letter "R" at the end of words.
want2bacat 2 years ago
Haha, epic! :)
How you pronounce words is majorly influenced of your growing up situation. A child repeats everything it hears, no matter if its spelled properly or not. Its something we dont even are aware of, because for us its natural, we learned it that way. And to change things like that...nearly impossible :)
Draaca 2 years ago
I just noticed that I saw that too maybe because of where we are from?
xGeemaa 2 years ago
I think it's a regional occurrence cause
almost everyone where I'm from even I
pronounce it shreet,
it's so fucking hard to pronounce it without
the (H)
I think it's a country thing
no matter where you from
crypticrimsonkrozz 2 years ago
I've never notice this in your speech but I quickly determined I use 'str'
Ninwa 2 years ago
I pronounce it "str", but that could be because I'm Swedish and pronouncing a word like "strand" (Swedish for beach) as "shtrand" would sound very odd.
I have actually heard a lot of people with English as their mother tounge pronounce Swedish str-words as "shtr".
LittleGods 2 years ago
I'm an str girl, but I have one friend who uses the shtr. I've never heard anyone but you and him use it, but I don't have any trouble understanding it.
lendenkitten 2 years ago
i don't care
timmchap35 2 years ago
where are you from? I've never heard "shtr" in the Seattle area.
jimrbsn 2 years ago
I guess that I don't say "display"; I say "dis-PLAY". It just depends on how you hear it on a regular basis. Why do some southerners say "erl" instead of "oil"? It's because that's how they heard it when they learned the word.
abaddon5 2 years ago
I noticed it too, but accepted it as part of your fabulousness. I pronounce it "str"
pfarabee 2 years ago
I, like yourself, always try to speak extremely clearly, something I tried to perfect in drama classes and stage productions through high school and college. I've always though I had a "neutral" accent and that my pronunciation was very correct, but recently I was told I pronounce "pillow" more like "pellow" sometimes. I've tried to correct this, but the two pronunciations are SO similar, it's difficult to tell whether I'm saying it correctly or not.
faber939 2 years ago
not a mistake at all
godisdelusion 2 years ago
I just noticed I pronounce it as SHTR, I've never noticed before.. O.o
link093 2 years ago
i pronounce it ...."str"...ZJ.........but thats not what really matters..........what matters is that i havent had my SRS, as of this date and still have some boy parts and you just made me come all over myself .........i usually dont like giving creedence to that physical aspect of myself .....but i guess from now on i'll have to watch you with a condom on...........thanks a fuckin heck of alot sis.....................I LOVE YOU
777Marlene 2 years ago
I'd love to take this video seriously, but there was only one thing on my mind when I was watching it...
WHERE THE FUCK IS ZJ'S VOICE COMING FROM? I DON'T SEE HIM!
cromartiedropout1 2 years ago
For me, I usually pronounce tree as "chree", truck as "chruck", true as "chrue" and so on. It's actually really cool because I'm just as comfortable pronouncing them the way they are spelled.
MiEstasDavid 2 years ago
Personally i use the str sound as that's what i've been taught (beeing an eoropean). But actually i think it sounds cooler with the sht pronunciation.
MistaKugel 2 years ago
I'm from the Midland,so I don't think I do have an accent,if that means anything.But I never noticed anything with my speech.
MonkeyOctober 2 years ago
After about fifteen seconds--yes, seconds--of experimentation, it seems to stem from whether you're pronouncing the sound from the front of your teeth or the back.
Personally, I pronounce it "str", from the front of the teeth.
BionicDance 2 years ago