Great thread! :DOriginally Posted by Tanja
By the way, there's a syllable contraint in English wherein the sound u, as in you, is pronounced as a glide (i.e. [j], as in yellow) if it forms its own syllable:
Example
united, u'ni'ted (u forms its own syllable, so it's pronounced as [j].
Compare, united above with under:
under, un'der (u does not form its own syllable, so it's not pronounced as [j].
Don't let the spelling fool you:
European, u'ro'pe'an (u forms its own syllable, so its pronounced as [j].
Can you find the exceptions? :wink:






