English Language & Usage Asked on May 6, 2021
This question is related to my previous question: Why does “singer” have /ŋ/ and “longer” have /ŋg/? but not a duplicate.
From Herrison’s answer, I learned that the -er in both "singer" and "longer" is not the same:
Singer and longer both end in the letters -er, but they don’t end in the same suffix: singer ends in the -er suffix that forms agent nouns, while longer ends in the -er suffix that forms comparative adjectives.
Now I wonder what will happen if I attach the verb making suffixes -ize (e.g. materialize) and -ify (e.g. "intensify") to a word that ends in /ŋ/ (say ring). The [ŋg] is found in middle of words such as finger, younger, stronger etc.
Let’s say there is a word (not a verb) that ends in /ŋ/ and we want to make it a verb by adding -ize or -ify to it, will the ending /ŋ/ become [ŋg] or it will remain [ŋ]? For example, suppose I want to make "anything" a verb by adding -ize or -ify to it:
I am talking about the accents that are considered standard (Southern British and General American). In simple words, the accents in which "singer" has only [ŋ] not [ŋg]
(NOTE: I am not concerned about what meaning it would give. I am merely asking about "pronunciation").
These suffixes are rarely attached to a base of this form. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following words and pronunciations (leaving out some obsolete forms):
The general guideline I would give is that /ŋɡ/ is unlikely with new formations, especially if the word is a "nonce formation" of the kind that is often hyphenated: if a spelling like "anything-ize" or "anything-ify" seems possible, then the pronunciation will likely not have /g/.
The same tendency to not use /g/ applies to words suffixed with -ish, which is somewhat more common: thus wrongish, strongish, longish, youngish are all given by the Oxford English Dictionary with /ŋɪʃ/.
Correct answer by herisson on May 6, 2021
It could be pronounced either way. Compare diphthongise (-ize) which is derived from diphthong (ends in /ŋ/) and -ise and is mostly pronounced with [ŋ] (I've heard it pronounced [ˈdifθɒŋɡaɪz]). For diphthongise, Lexico and Merriam-Webster give the pronunciation with [ŋ] only:
However, Collins Dictionary and Dictionary.com list the pronunciation with [ŋɡ] as an alternative.
As for the suffix -ify, I think it can also be pronounced in both ways; with [ŋ] or [ŋɡ]. There aren't many ify-verbs that have [ŋ] before the -ify, the only one I've been able to find is stringify for which Wikitionary gives /ˈstɹɪŋɪfaɪ/ only.
Answered by Decapitated Soul on May 6, 2021
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