• Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 months ago

    French have the term ‘macabre’, which the English adopted and Anglicized by dropping the final ‘re’ sound but kept the spelling for some reason. “Ma ka bre” became “ma kah b”.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyzM
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      7 months ago

      The realisation of that -re is highly variable in English. Some speakers convey it as Ø (nothing), some as /ɹə/ or /ə/ (non-rhotic) or /ə˞/ (rhotic).

      • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        Every time I’ve heard someone pronounce the -re sound on a YouTube video, there were several comments stating that you shouldn’t pronounce it, so I thought it was the de facto way to say it in American English.

        • Lvxferre@mander.xyzM
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          7 months ago

          Prescriptively speaking I think that all three (nothing, -re, -er) are legitimate; for reference the word is /ma.kabʁ/ in French, the cluster is clearly illegal in English so the variations can be seen as different “repairing” strategies. (I’d probably render it as /məkɑ:be/ but my non-native pronunciation is strongly biased towards British varieties, specially RP.)

          Note YT comments are often a bit silly with prescriptions. Like trying to correct Steejo (a Scottish YouTuber) for, well, speaking Scottish English.