The pronunciation of ~land

[EngFan]

Hi Everyone,

There are many ~land words; however the pronunciation of ~land in different words will have different pronounciation. For instance, the ~land in Queensland has different pronunciation to Disneyland, Wonderland, I just wanted to know if there is any rule to guide us how to pronounce the ~land correctly.

EngFan

[Raymott]

Hi Everyone,

There are many ~land words; however the pronunciation of ~land in different words will have different pronounciation. For instance, the ~land in Queensland has different pronunciation to Disneyland, Wonderland, I just wanted to know if there is any rule to guide us how to pronounce the ~land correctly.

EngFan

No, actually "Queensland" is pronounced like Disneyland, and Wonderland (at least by Queenslanders, of which I'm one). /'kwi:nz,lænd/ - 'land' has its full value. (Just as 'bane' in 'Brisbane' doesn't: /brɪzbən/, by the way.)

Like Queensland are Greenland, Swaziland, Thailand ... (in AusE, at least).

On the other hand, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, New Zealand, Poland ... have the unaccented /lənd/
One that could go either way, again in AusE accent, is Finland.

I can't think of a rule, and others would have a slightly differently list to mine.

[jlinger]

And here in Canada, we have two pronunciations of Newfoundland - New-FOUND-land and NEWfun'l'n.

I suspect it's more a regional difference. I don't think anyone would look oddly at you if you said Scot-land instead of Scot-lund. The emphasis is never on that final sylable, so it just falls naturally, quietly, without much notice.

[orangutan]

I think (though I admit I am guessing) that it has to do with whether it is felt as a simple word or a compound of two words. Which in turn depends on whether the element before "land" can be thought of as a word in its own right.