Ireland and Island distinction made by David Cameron (Standard British English)

[LordJenkins]

Hi guys, just watched a video of the British PM in Ireland, and noticed that he made quite a clear distinction between island and ireland, which is hard to do if your English might i add! lol

Most of us would pronounce them the same way right? I think this is just a feature of RP but i may be wrong. Im not sure how he pronounces Ireland though... He uses a triphthong correct? Maybe somebody can work out the phonetic symbols...

Anyone else make this distinction?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QroenbDVuR0

[BobK]

Hi guys, just watched a video of the British PM in Ireland, and noticed that he made quite a clear distinction between island and ireland, which is hard to do if your English might i add! lol

Most of us would pronounce them the same way right? I think this is just a feature of RP but i may be wrong. Im not sure how he pronounces Ireland though... He uses a triphthong correct? Maybe somebody can work out the phonetic symbols...

Anyone else make this distinction? Yes

YouTube - ‪Ireland and Island pronunciation‬‏

What he says at the beginning (which is more RP than not) is indeed a triphthong: /aɪə/. Towards the end he lapses into a lazier /ɑ:/.

b

[5jj]

Most of us would pronounce them the same way right?
I don't think so. The LPD gives /aɪə/ for Ireland, with a symbol between /ɪ/ and /ə/ indicating 'possible compression', i.e. two syllables compressed into a single syllable. For island, the LPD gives /aɪ/

Anyone else make this distinction?
I do.

5

[LordJenkins]

Thanks Bob for explaning the phonetics. I did hear a slight variation in his pronunication of Ireland too. He used some smoothing on the triphthong a few times. Thanks Fivejedonb for answering my question. Thats interesting, I come from Manchester where we use flat vowels, which is a shame lol

I think most northerners would pronounce the two words the same. But maybe im wrong. I personally like the distinction though.

[Tdol]

I make the distinction too.