
Yes, it is, although educated native speakers don't normally say ˈriːvjuː.
I must admit I had already noticed this pronunciation myself and was also a bit surprised when I
heard Mr Monti use it as well. (Watch this video: at about 00:12 you can hear
the Italian Prime Minister say ˈspɛndiŋɡ
ˈriːvju.) Somebody should tell Mario Monti that ˈriːvjuː is a (mostly dialectal) American pronunciation often heard in cowboy films. (Have a look at this extremely interesting article by Jack Windsor Lewis.)
In educated English speech, review is always riˈvjuː, rəˈvjuː, and
the compound noun spending review has
initial element stress (IES), thus ˈspendɪŋ
riˌvjuː/rəˌ-. Listen to George
Osborne in this audio clip: at about 00:21 he can be heard to pronounce the
expression in the next spending review
as ɪn̪ n̪ə ˈneks ˈspendɪŋ rɪˌvjuː. Notice how the initial ð of the unstressed definite article the is assimilated to the n
in in. Also, note how the consonant
cluster -kst in next is simplified before sp-,
thus becoming -ks.
One of the
reasons why some NNSs think that the noun review should be pronounced ˈriːvju(ː)
is probably because they are unaware that there exist in English several pairs of
words which have identical spelling and only differ from each other in stress
placement, apparently according to word class. So, for example, the verb (to) record takes stress on the second
syllable, whereas the noun/adjective record
has stress on the first. The same (usually) goes for reˈcharge (v.) and ˈrecharge (n.), reˈdraft (v.) and ˈredraft (n.), etc. For other words with the same spelling,
speakers don't always make a difference between the noun and the verb: think of
research, reboot, reshuffle, increase, etc. Finally, there are words
like review where the stress falls on the second syllable in both the verb and the noun: riˈvjuː,
rə-.
If you are
in doubt, check with a good pronouncing dictionary!
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From now on, posts will be every Monday morning.
La Spending Review
Davide
Palumbo mi scrive per chiedere quale sia la 'corretta' pronuncia inglese del
termine review:
"Ciao Alex, sono mesi ormai che si sente parlare della famigerata spending review. Tutti i giornalisti e anche il Presidente del Consiglio Monti pronunciano la parola review in questo modo [sic] /ˈrivjuː/ invece di /riˈvjuː/ come riportato [sic] dal LPD [= Longman Pronunciation Dictionary]. Sembra [sic] stano che nessun giornalista, ma proprio nessuno, abbia fatto notare il vistoso errore di pronuncia, al punto che ho cominciato a dubitare sulla pronuncia corretta di spending review. Solo tu puoi chiarire questo dubbio. Grazie del tuo tempo."

In
inglese standard, review si può pronunciare riˈvjuː o rəˈvjuː (ascoltate le possibili varianti offerte dal sito web Forvo
o dagli altri link ai dizionari forniti su questa pagina). Il nome composto spending review ha l'accento principale
sulla prima sillaba del primo elemento: ˈspendɪŋ
riˌvjuː/rəˌ-. Ascoltate George
Osborne in questa clip: al secondo 00:21 lo si può sentire pronunciare
l'espressione in the next spending review
ɪn̪ n̪ə ˈneks ˈspendɪŋ rɪˌvjuː. Notate come il suono iniziale ð dell'articolo determinativo the, che qui appare in posizione non
accentata, venga assimilato al suono n
di in. Inoltre, il nesso consonantico
-kst in next viene semplificato perché davanti al nesso sp- di spending.
Una
delle ragioni per le quali alcuni studenti non madrelingua 'ritengono' che la pronuncia
originale del sostantivo review sia ˈriːvjuː è da ricercarsi con molta
probabilità nel fatto che ignorano l'esistenza nella lingua inglese di coppie di parole con
ortografia identica che vengono distinte tra loro soltanto per la posizione
dell'accento, il quale definisce se si tratta di nomi/aggettivi o verbi. Così,
per esempio, il verbo (to) record è
accentato sulla seconda sillaba, mentre record
(nom./agg.) prende sempre l'accento sulla prima. Seguono (generalmente) la
stessa 'regola' reˈcharge
(v.) e ˈrecharge (nom.), reˈdraft
(v.) e ˈredraft (nom.), ecc. Esistono poi altre parole sempre identiche
nello spelling ma caratterizzate dal fatto che i nativi non sono sempre
d'accordo su quale sillaba accentare per differenziare il verbo dal sostantivo:
è il caso di research, reboot, reshuffle, increase, ecc.
Infine ci sono termini come review
per i quali sia il verbo che il sostantivo hanno (di norma) la stessa accentazione:
riˈvjuː, rə-.
Conviene, quindi, controllare sempre in un buon dizionario di
pronuncia.
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D'ora in poi i miei
post(s) verranno pubblicati ogni lunedì mattina.
n̪ n̪ - Interesting. So, the only trace of the ð would be the dentalization of the two surrounding Ns, which in addition couldn’t merge into a long one. I mean, the tip of the tongue must leave the gums (or reduce its contact against them) in passing from the first to the second n.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of adding an Italian version.
"I like the idea of adding an Italian version."
DeleteThanks, Emilio! Any other suggestions?
Everything’s fine. I wish I could write to you also in Italian. I’ll begin studying it after I’ve got a copy of “Practical Phonetics and Phonology”, where I will follow your comments (and recordings) on Italian pronunciation.
DeletePronunciation first (and foremost)!
Maybe one day I'll post blogs in Spanish as well... Who knows?!
DeleteIn educated English speech, review is always riˈvjuː, rəˈvjuː,
ReplyDeleteI would disagree with this. I have a three way distinction /i/ vs. /ɪ/ vs. /ə/ in unstressed front/central vowels, exemplified by "Rosie's"/"roses"/"Rosa's". I rarely hear riˈvju (with the happY vowel in the first syllable): far more often I hear rɪˈvju: (with the vowel of rabbIt in the first syllable, which neutralizes to schwa in those with the weak vowel merger).
I've had a chance to listen to George Osborne in the clip you link. I've listened to it a couple of times, and, to my ear at least, it's definitely /rɪˈvju:/. I'd be interested to know if you think it's closer to /riˈvju:/.
DeleteYes, in a narrow phonetic transcription it should be [rɪˈvju:], not [riˈvju:]. So I've changed /i/ to [ɪ], as you suggest.
DeleteI want to stress, though, that in my sentence "In educated English speech, review is always riˈvjuː, rəˈvjuː", I was using /i/ as a compromise symbol which indicates that in the unstressed prefix "re-" some speakers use [ɪ], some [iː], some use something intermediate or indeterminate, and some fluctuate between the two possibilities. See p.539 in LPD.
Prof. Wells (author of the LPD) doesn't have the three-way phonemic distinction I mentioned above, so I've often found myself disagreeing with him, on his blog, about these words :)
DeleteThere are many dialects of English. The pronunciation of "review" that you stigmatize is very common in Australian English, including "educated" Australian English.
ReplyDeleteRichard Mullins.