Hello everyone. I am alive and back. I am extremely sorry for my inactivity though I had said I would be actively participating here during vacations.
I was taking a much needed break after my assignments and stuff were all completed and submitted after my finals. Looking at the computer screen for five whole months are extremely tiring and truly unhealthy. But there was no other way.
So I threw away my laptop (not literally) in my picnic basket for three whole weeks and read some books. Peace. But at last I am back here. Looks like I missed too much fun.
@Void I saw a question you edited half an hour ago. In your explanation you have written that assume is pronounced either as 'a-shoom' or 'a-soom'. But when I hear the pronunciation on Google, it sounds like 'a-syum' to me. Is it correct? Or am I hearing wrong?
@DhanishthaGhosh: TL;DR: You're absolutely right! But the pronunciation in Google's dictionary is a 'careful' pronunciation.
Long version: In most American accents, 'assume' is pronounced a-soom, without the medial glide (the Y after the S), it's because the cluster 'SY' has been reduced in those accents. .....
You'll also hear STOOPID in those accents. I had never heard 'assume' pronounced ASOOM until recently, and it caught me off guard.
In British accents, however, the cluster -SY- still exists and Assume is pronounced with a medial Y; AS-YOOM (that's what you're hearing on Google). In rapid/casual speech (some prescriptivists call it 'sloppy speech), there's a tendency to 'merge/assimilate' nearby sounds. (assimilate: ... see one of my recent answers, the on about the pronunciation of 'posthumous')
The S sound is articulated (produced) at the ridge behind your top teeth (say ssss and feel the blade of your tongue), the Y is articulated further back in the mouth i.e. at the hard palate (the region behind the ridge). So when a Y comes after an S, the S anticipates it and changes its place of articulation to the palate
i.e. it's articulated further back in the mouth in anticipation of the following Y
@Void Aha, I see. I don't know why, but being an Indian I took up words mostly belonging to British English, I mostly (if not always) write British English spellings, when I believe there is more of American English influence nowadays.
@Void That sounds complicated to me. I will stick to my pronunciation of the one I picked up and learned, which to say, is the Google one actually. XD
@Void Not being rude, but I could not decipher anything from this answer, partially because I was sleepy that day when I first saw it (at four up-votes state) and partially because it contains too much old English, incomprehensible for a poor fellow like me.
Again, I don't mean to disrespect you. It is just my views why it didn't attract too much attention.
@DhanishthaGhosh Lol, nah, of course not. Everybody here is volunteering their time. And everybody needs some time away from ELL or SE once in a while. I myself am taking some time off some other sites that I used to frequent.
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