I'll be interested to see if there is any variation in this week's words, although having said that, there almost certainly will be more than I suspect ...
Poll #1270132Vestige
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 182
Which of the following best reflects how you pronounce the word 'vestige'?
But I do use these the pronunciations for different uses, both as nouns. How to explain... I use pres-TEEZH as the quality that can be possessed. E.g., "He gained a lot of pres-TEEZH." I use PRES-teezh as a name. E.g. "Near the PRES-teezh hotel" or in the case of the movie "The PRES-teezh". I don't know why I use this latter pronunciation. There's no good reason to do so.
Even after the explanation in wikipedia, I'm rather fuzzy on why "an adjective used as a noun" is not a noun adjunct, particularly with their example of "chicken soup." Anyway, that aside, I'm not sure noun adjunct is the right description here.
In my second example, referencing the movie "the Prestige", it doesn't seem to apply. But I'm more interested in the first example, "the Prestige hotel". Which noun is the adjunct here? I could omit either "Prestige" or "hotel" and the sentence would not change (although it might become less clear).
An adjectival noun is like 'The meek shall inherit the earth'; meek is an adjective turned into a noun.
In the case of 'The Prestige Hotel', Prestige is a name, which is a different situation than 'a prestige function'. Names behave oddly in language sometimes.
"ves-TEEZH" and "pres-TEEZH" for both. To me, they rhyme perfectly. Although I pronounce the "T" almost interchangeable with a "D"; I think it's a West-Coast USA problem?
I have caught myself pronouncing 'vestige' two different ways that you have listed: ves-TEEDGE more often than VES-tidge. I suppose my confusion comes from the words prestige and vestigial.
Also, in never ves-TEEDGE nor pres-TEEDGE do I actually pronounce a D-sound. Those were just the closest approximations to what I say that were offered.
I'm presuming it's what we in English normally call a 'J' sound, which is how the letters '-dge' are normally pronounced. (More on this to come in the analysis, no doubt!)
"I'll be interested to see if there is any variation in this week's words"
Why did you choose words in which you thought there wouldn't be significant variation, if I may ask? Also, it seems to me that whenever variation is possible, people will vary.
Well, I did think there would be some variation in the pronunciation of 'vestige', because I heard one of the more unusual variants recently, and wanted to find out how widespread it is. But for me, VES-tidge is the standard and until that one instance, I'd never consciously heard any variation.
I occassionally use "PRES-teezh" and very rarely "pres-TIZH" as well. I went witht the one I use the most/the one that I think I say the most (I have started to second guess myself) in the actual poll- PRES-teedge".
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