Stop release after velar nasal (American English)

[Daniel]

I was under the impression that -ng endings in English were always pronounced [ŋ] and not [ŋg].
But recently I've heard a lot of actors (both men and women, but maybe especially women?) on TV pronounce the stop at the end.

This is usually at the end of words. It may also be in words like "singer" but I can't say for sure.

Questions:
1. Have you observed this? Is it common?
2. Is this an innovation? Or a relic?
3. Is it becoming more common?

[lx]

Questions:
1. Have you observed this? Is it common?
2. Is this an innovation? Or a relic?
3. Is it becoming more common?
Modify message

I'm also interested in knowing the answer, because I'm from a speech area that has always retained the [g] and it sounds normal to me. I know I don't use it a lot of the time but when I first learned about the phonological history of English it was a nightmare for me to see what the fuss was about given that it's something other people were pointing to as 'obviously wrong', which, for me, was totally fine.

I'm from the top area:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonants#mediaviewer/File:Ng-coalescence.svg]

[freknu]

-ng- was most certainly pronounced [ŋg] in Proto-Germanic, as well as in Old Norse (north), Gothic (east), and Old Saxon (west), thus occuring in all Germanic branches.

As far as I know, it also occured in Old English and Middle English. So from my limited knowledge of English, [ŋg] → [ŋ] should be a later development, though I can't give any chronological estimate.

Also, isn't there a difference between -ng and participle -ng? As in the participle suffix -ing is actually an innovation from an earlier -in (or was it -en)? The PG. suffix was *-andz which probably would have been -end or something similar in Old English.

I can't say that I have noticed it. Maybe I will now :D

Could it maybe be an influence from foreign speakers of English, who probably tend to pronounce the stop as well? My bet would be on innovation, analogy, or influence, but that's not to say I can rule out relic either. It all depends on the dialect ... but I would dare say that it's more likely to be an innovation.

[Daniel]

Interesting, lx, but I wonder if it's preserved in America from those dialects or re-inovated. It's the sort of thing that could sort of fade in and out, I imagine, given small changes in gestures.

As far as I know, it also occured in Old English and Middle English. So from my limited knowledge of English, [ŋg] → [ŋ] should be a later development, though I can't give any chronological estimate.

Right. But same question: does that imply that this is preserved? Why not re-innovated? In fact--

Also, isn't there a difference between -ng and participle -ng? As in the participle suffix -ing is actually an innovation from an earlier -in (or was it -en)? The PG. suffix was *-andz which probably would have been -end or something similar in Old English.

Hmm... analogy? Might be. But I'm not sure that's the source. I know that gerunds and participles are only accidentally homophonous (a merger, I believe). So maybe it came from that?
But if it is indeed in some sense an innovation, then it looks like at least some dialects went back to the earlier form with the stop.

Could it maybe be an influence from foreign speakers of English,....

Not sure. Unlikely, probably.
But this is part of why I asked this-- tutoring a student about pronouncing the word "singer" so that it doesn't rhyme with "finger". But I remembered hearing some Americans say it that way anyway...

[freknu]

Really tough to say. Certainly some dialects could have preserved the [g] while other simply innovated (reintroduced) the [g] — there's probably not a singular answer to it.

I'm actually kind of curious to hear this in practice :) You wouldn't happen to have a youtube clip or something?

[Daniel]

No link at the moment but I'll keep an ear out

[enunciativo]

Among native speakers, I haven't observed the stop release (as [ŋg] or [ŋk]).  Of course, we spend quite a bit of time trying to get ESL students to eliminate the added stop.  I thought that I'd be sensitive to this pronunciation:  I'll pay closer attention to actors.  I looked at GMU's speech-accent archive, and I didn't find the stop among the dozens of native speakers that I checked.  What could cause a relic to re-emerge?  (What I have noticed is the increasing popularity of [h] insertion in s consonant clusters, e.g. 'street' rendered as [ʃtɹit]).

[Daniel]

Of course, we spend quite a bit of time trying to get ESL students to eliminate the added stop.

Been working on that myself, and now I'm wondering if it's worth the time, if Americans do that anyway.


Reply here if you do start noticing it more. I wouldn't have believe it myself, but now that I've been listening for it, I do hear it sometimes in TV shows. If I find one in particular (usually it's an actress, sometimes actor, who does it consistently) I will post.

(What I have noticed is the increasing popularity of [h] insertion in s consonant clusters, e.g. 'street' rendered as [ʃtɹit]).

Ah, maybe I'll start hearing this now. Doesn't sound familiar at all at the moment though. (Except from German, of course.)

[jkpate]

(What I have noticed is the increasing popularity of [h] insertion in s consonant clusters, e.g. 'street' rendered as [ʃtɹit]).

Ah, maybe I'll start hearing this now. Doesn't sound familiar at all at the moment though. (Except from German, of course.)

This has been documented for American English, see Durian (2007) and references therein.