Phalanx Flanks and Dogs Are Drags

Recently I've been listening to podcasts like crazy during work. It not only helps me catch up on news, editorial pieces, and great songs, it also has allowed me to learn more about the great culture that is Perl via Perlcast. The guy, Josh McAdams, who does Perlcast sets up interviews, talks about the latest news, discusses aspects of the language for beginners, and also highlights modules that many other Perl users have found useful. Besides all that goodness, he segues in and out of the podcast with music he has selected from garageband.com. Anyway, just that alone has made the podcast a great experience! The song that I'm getting addicted to right now is called Sun Years by Scotland Barr and The Slow Drags. Just thought I'd share the goodness :)

Another great thing about Josh McAdams, at least for me, is his Southern accent. For example, he was talking about a project called Phalanx, and it sounded like "flanks" to me (is there a connection between the words?). I have always pronounced it (ever since playing Civilization, that is) like ['fele?ks], with the stress on the first syllable. He, however, in Perlcast 9, sounds like he pronounces it ['fle?ks]: only one syllable, albeit with a lot of consonants (soundclip). Nothing wrong with it (of course), but I just thought it was interesting because it made me try to think of words that I do that to (i.e., that I drop a vowel). The only one I could think of of the top of my head was philanthropy [f?'lan?r?pi]/['flan?r?pi]. The schwa is present when I'm speaking more carefully, but that's not that often. ;) The similarity I saw was that both had the same onset cluster [fl] and similar codas: a nasal followed bya voiceless consonant. Other than that, I guess it's just that he drops an unstressed vowel between a fricative and a liquid regularly, whereas I just do it intermittently. It just sorta caught me off-guard because for me I've never heard "phalanx" pronounced with the first vowel unstressed/dropped.

Also, another fun one for me was when I was first trying to find the band's name for the above-mentioned song. To me, it sound like he's saying Scotland Barr and the Slow Dogs (soundclip). I don't know where he grew up, but I have an aunt who lives in Louisville who sounds nothing like him, so I don't think he's from there. Anyway, this one I can't wrap my head around. How is "drags" pronounced "dogs" to my ears? I gotta think about it more. Ahh, language is great :)

Hey David, thanks for listening to Perlcast. As far as my accent, it is south Arkansas.

I've had a lot of trouble with saying Phalanx on the podcast. At first, I pronounced it like 'fay-lanks', but was told that it really sounded more like 'flanks'. Now, I just avoid saying it as much as possible. Why did Andy choose such a difficult word? :)

The Slow Dogs pronunciation... well, that is just a case of my mouth not saying what my eyes were seeing. I said dogs but should have said drags. Oops.

Thank you for all of the comments. Other than all of the Perl that I've learned by hosting this podcast, I've also learned that I'm a very lazy reader and speaker. Feel free to correct me when I get too far off in how I pronounce words.

Hi Josh,
Thank you for producing Perlcast! Yeah, phalanx is a weird word: i think he should have been more careful about using such a rare word (but I do like the motto he uses with it). :) I'm glad that the Slow Dogs pronunciation was just a flub (which I do all the time, btw) because, like I said, I was lost with how to explain that variation. As for pronunciation, I didn't mean to "correct you" or anything like that, I just like noticing pronunciations that are different from my own, and trying to figure out the possible reason(s) for such variation. Maybe the reason for the laziness in speaking and reading stems from applying the three virtues of programming to other aspects of life (which I am definitely guilty of). ;)

Hey David,

Thanks very much for mentioning our song! It's nice to know that people are finding it and enjoying it! I wanted to take the opportunity to let you and Josh and any readers out there know that we've got other songs and more content up on our GarageBand website, and also on our band website, which is http://www.scotlandbarr.com. Thanks for the good word, and do keep listening!

Sincerely,
Chris Hubbard, Slow Drag

Thanks for the info Chris! I will keep listening, and make a point to keep checking the website for updates. :)

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