British dialects and "either".

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Shadd

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Hello (I'm new here, by the way), I often find myself noticing the differences in the pronunciation of words by one dialect or the other. Lately I've stumbled upon some unmistakably british accent speakers which though pronounced the word "either" as I know it is pronounced in american english (that is, as 'iːðɚ ). What I would like to know is then: where, in the british territory (or the whole commonwealth) is "either" pronounced as 'iːðɚ and where it's instead pronounced as ˈaɪ.ðə?
 

Shadd

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Yes indeed it does: apparently it's not anything regionally related and it only depends on the choice of the speaker. From what I could collect of its etymology though, it comes from old english ægðer, and since that must have been pretty close to the viking languages of the time, its correct pronunciation is thus ˈaɪ.ðə (æ is pronounced aɪ in icelandic and other germanic languages that retain the features of the old norse and danish languages like faroese and the like).
Thank you very much for your help. :)
 
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