Err

# 91 -- your story of being forced to mispronounce Quay in order to get service reminded me of something that happened to my sister.
We were in a jewelry story, & she asked the young saleswoman if they had any vermeil. The girl wrinkled up her nose & responded, "Do you mean 'vurMEEL'?"

sorry -- jewelry STORE.

#100: If your sister had to ask for vurMEEL, the two of you must have been in a JEW-lurry store.

And NO, NorthAmerican's, #102, is NOT a racial slur. The same folks who pronounce nuclear as nukoolar pronounce jewelry as jewlurry! I've heard it many, many times...as I'm sure that NorthAmerican has.

The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

jewelry, jewellery (n.)

Jewelry is the American spelling, jewellery, a British variant, but both have a three-syllable Standard pronunciation, JOO-uhl-ree. Also Standard is the American variant pronunciation JOOL-ree, but the frequently heard JOO-luh-ree, caused by metathesis, is Nonstandard.
link

The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

METATHESIS

(primary stress is on the second of the four syllables) is the transposition of sounds or letters in the speaking or writing of words. The error causes the confusion of Calvary with cavalry and often makes revalent of relevant. All such errors are Substandard, as are the metathetic pronunciations NOO-kyoo-luhr for nuclear, PUHR-tee for pretty, and WAHPS for wasp, as well as the spelling ax and the pronunciation AKS for ask. link

Razzak: Hmmmmmmmmm. On questioning myself, I find I say either jool-ry or joo-schwa+l-ree. However, with our Canadian/British spelling of jewellery, the "Substandard" pronunciation "JOO-luh-ree" doesn't look like methaesis to me, but rather an error of reading the word as it's spelled. Who am I to question The CGTSAE. But it raises the question for me, is there an equally elegant name for the mis-pronunciation of words by saying them the way they're spelled, such as pronouncing the "k" in knife? And if so, what is it?

And what is the name given to adding phantom syllables, such as the substandard "mis CHEE vee us" for the correct "MIS chuh vus" for mischievous. Is that metathesis as well?

Speaking of which, methaesis=metasisyphus, of course.

For what it's worth, I don't it's either metathesis or a spelling pronunciation. Jew-el becoming jool doesn't require a lot of explanation, and I would call the schwa then inserted between the l and the r an epenthetic vowel. Take that!

or svarabhakti

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I would call the schwa then inserted between the l and the r an epenthetic vowel<hr></blockquote>
(Playing devil's advocate here): True, although you would then need to account for the elision of the first schwa. Metathesis deals with the epenthesis and elision in one fell swoop by simply transposing the two sounds, but the epenthesis theory would require an additional elision rule.

I see shilgia's svarabhakti and raise her an anaptyxis.

#108 -- I don't have a Greek or Sanskrit word for it but it seems to me that schwas get added and deleted between long vowels and consonants all the time. Some people say dour as one syllable, some as two (among those who pronounce it properly, that is, not those who rhyme it with sour. Although it's also true that some pronounce sour as one syllable and some insert a schwa.) I don't know whether my pronunciation of fire is one syllable, or two. I'd be inclined to say two, with a shwa before the r, or rather with an r-colored schwa following the dipthong. What do you call the schwa before the n that appeared in Gerald Ford's pronunciation of "known" (not unique to him)? This is the reverse of that.