From: marnanel	Date: February 26th, 2008 07:38 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I would only use the Omar version if I was talking about the famous Guardian hoax.

I don't quite pronounce the first syllable "sair" to rhyme with "bear", though: it's a shorter vowel and the liquid is the onset of the second syllable rather than being part of the rime of the first.

From: krilltish	Date: February 29th, 2008 09:09 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Excuse me, but this is something that has been *annoying* to me for some time. I do not really understand what a "liquid" is. Could you, may you, please explain?

	From: marnanel	Date: February 29th, 2008 09:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

As I understand it (if I'm wrong, I hope someone here will correct me), a liquid is a vowel-like consonant (vowel-like in that it doesn't involve stopping the vocal tract), but one which doesn't have a corresponding vowel (so it doesn't include "y" as a consonant, because there is a vowel corresponding to it). English has "r" and "l", though there are others (the "ll" in Welsh is an example).

I think their existence is the reason that a lot of English's onset consonant clusters are actually pronounceable at all.

[ Edit: And I know I've been very imprecise in writing alphabet letters instead of IPA, but I thought that was a better way of getting the point across. ]

Edited at 2008-02-29 09:38 pm (UTC)

	From: jere7my	Date: February 26th, 2008 07:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)

For this east coast speaker, it rhymes with Sharif when it's by itself, with sheriff when it's part of "sans-serif".

	From: youngwilliam	Date: February 26th, 2008 08:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Really? I do it the other way around.

'Sah-reef' when I'm trying to sound French, and 'seraph' when I'm just talking about a nubby-bit on a letter.

	From: zastrazzi	Date: February 26th, 2008 08:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)

More like seh-riff in my case.

	From: eytan_bernstein	Date: February 27th, 2008 12:31 am (UTC)		(Link)

Same here: seh-riff.

	From: sam_t	Date: February 28th, 2008 11:52 am (UTC)		(Link)

Ditto, with stress on first syllable. It's the same vowel as 'sherrif' but not the same as 'air'.

	From: intertext	Date: February 26th, 2008 08:54 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Boy, the things you learn on LJ. I had no idea there was an alternate pronounciation of serif, have just always made it rhyme with Sharif, without thinking (except, as the person above notes, the "sans" tends to force a french-ish slant on it)

	From: shanmonster	Date: February 26th, 2008 09:08 pm (UTC)		(Link)

sair-reef....

	From: rubberduckgrrl	Date: February 26th, 2008 10:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It comes closest to the first one, kinda like sair-if. (Rhymes with tear - as in rip, not tear from the eye.)

Clear as mud, eh?

	From: buhrger	Date: February 26th, 2008 10:20 pm (UTC)		(Link)

sometimes rhymes with "sheriff", sometimes the first syllable is closer to "sir"

	From: lpetrazickis	Date: February 26th, 2008 11:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I emphasize the second syllable in "serif" and "Sharif". I emphasize the first in "sheriff".

	From: ankhorite	Date: February 26th, 2008 11:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Serif

serr-IF, first syllable like Sir Elton John.

	From: soulchanger	Date: February 27th, 2008 05:19 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Serif

Same here.

	From: generickid	Date: February 26th, 2008 11:44 pm (UTC)		(Link)

i voted for 'sair-rif' but its really closer to 'sehr-riff' but the 2nd R is very miniscule.

	From: narniabound	Date: February 27th, 2008 02:11 am (UTC)		(Link)

Oh damn. You take these away for a few weeks and I do it wrong the first time they're back. I clicked "Other" but should have selected "sair-rif".