posted
Okay I've searched and searched and con't find anything on this. So tell me. Does anyone else say Ha Track instead of Hat Rack, or is it just me?
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've always said Hat Track...but then I introduced a friend of mine to the forum and he says Hat Rack...and so does OSC. So I'm trying to change my habit, but it hasn't been working very well so far.
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ah, I wasn't thinking of the entire word. I was thinking that moving the t in front of man wouldn't change the pronunciation if it were two different words.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
So by hat rack, do you mean not actually saying a t but using a glottal stop, they way most folks do with Kitten and Mitten? I only actually say the t in "jatraqueros", though I can't think of a reason I would have said that aloud.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
See, I was going to bring up the glottal stop. That's how I pronounce "Hatrack." I believe Americans in general use the glottal stop instead of actually pronouncing the "t" with the front of their tongue.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
tman is not a well formed syllable in English, though it probably is in some other language. Track is.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I guess that was my point. TR has it's own pronunciation that isn't *really* t and r put together. But the only way for an American to pronounce "tman" wound be to move the t to the word before it.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have always said hat-rack, yes, with a glottal stop. I have heard people saying ha-track but I just put it down to the fact that all y'all talk sorta funny anyways but don't worry we don't hold it against you.
[ February 11, 2004, 12:19 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
Y'all? Are you implying that Texans mispronounce Hatrack or that southerners usually get it right?
Posts: 2258 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Funny this should come up. I was arguing with my Mom about it the other day. She thinks it is pronounced "Hay-track" and I was trying to tell her it's "Hat-rack", but she doesn't believe me.
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:TR has it's own pronunciation that isn't *really* t and r put together.
Actually, it is. The t becomes palatalized by the r that follows it, making it almost but not quite a ch.
quote:The problem there is that ch doesn't really sound like c and h.
Welcome to the world of English spelling. It's just a spelling convention. In Old English, the ch sound was represented by a c preceded or followed by an i or an e, which caused palatalization of the c. The same thing happened in Vulgate Latin. In Latin it was always a k sound, but in Italian, c + (i or e) is pronounced like ch.
But I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know about that. The point is that the word "hatrack" is "hat" + "rack." When a t is the last letter of the first part of a compound word, it almost always turns into a glottal stop. I can't actually think of any exceptions to the rule off the top of my head.
[ February 10, 2004, 11:08 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm confused by the people who say they pronounce it "hat track." Are you pronouncing the t twice?
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Similar to this, I likely mispronounce many of the names in Speaker for the Dead. Yes, yes, there's that helpful how-to-pronounce-portuguese-names bit in the front, but I totally ignored it
I like how I "think" their names.
Like Eilonwy in the Lloyd Alexander books... I used to say "ellon-wee" instead of "eye-LAHN-wee" which is the (sorta?) correct way.
And now, back to Hat Rack. Which anyone who knows anything knows, is pronounced Hatr Ack.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
PSI--As a linguistic economist, you can teach the likes of Alan Greenspan how to pronounce "interest."
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've always said Ha-Track. Hat Rack just sounds weird to me. But apparently I am wrong. Oh, well. That's nothing new.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
This was at Goat.![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
Jon Boy![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
