Pronunciation of "asphalt"

[7/8]

I have an interest in regional accents, and I found out maybe a year ago that the "correct" pronunciation of asphalt is ASSphalt. My whole life, I've always said ASHphalt, and I assumed it was spelt that way too! Apparently this is common in (at least parts of) Canada.

So I'd like to ask people to post where they're from and how they pronounce asphalt. I'm curious where these two pronunciations are commonly found.

I've spent my whole life in Southern Ontario (Canada) for the record 

[Max Rockatansky]

I always pronounced it like "ass-fault" and I'm originally from Michigan...  But then again I'm told that I have a southern accent which makes no sense at all since I've spoke the way I do my whole life...  Apparently the correct way to pronounce asphalt is as follows:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/En-us-asphalt.ogg

Almost sounds like "As-fault" to me.

[hotdogPi]

I've always said ass-fault. Would the British say arse-fault?

[billtm]

People have told me that the way I speak is called "standard American", whatever that means. Grew up most of my life (2 years old till now) in West Lafayette, IN and I have always pronounced it ass-fault.

[allniter89]

black top

[Max Rockatansky]

I've always said ass-fault. Would the British say arse-fault?

Seems the Brits say "Ass-fault" too:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/asphalt

People have told me that the way I speak is called "standard American", whatever that means. Grew up most of my life (2 years old till now) in West Lafayette, IN and I have always pronounced it ass-fault.

Basically it's what the modern midwest accent has evolved into.  Most people in the midwest used to sound different from one state to the next.  My Grand Parents were from Detroit and spoke like Canadians, you had a lot of "da bears" Chicago accents on top of my cousin's family speaking Minnesota Nice.

Imagine you have to visit a rural farm in Minnesota in the 1980s and all the adults talk like this:

Or you live in Chicago for a couple years and have to listen to everyone over thirty sound like this when they talk about sports:

Especially when you still had some people in Chicago who talked like they were reading a radio news report about Elliot Ness fighting Al Capone and his gangland chronies:

Or your grand father from Michigan sounds like an older Steve Yzerman (this is the most tolerable by a country mile):

But hey, I got a Grandfather from Baltimore who still can't pronounce "wash" correctly and inserts an "R" into for some reason.  At least it's not as bad as the Boston accent dropping ALL the "R's" instead...don't ask them to "park the car in the garage."

[Brandon]

I've always used "ass-fault", and I speak Inland North with the ICVS.

[PurdueBill]

I'm with the majority on this.  Cleopatra said: "Whoever refuses to fix these potholes can kiss my" BLANK.  Brett, what do you have?



As far as Rs showing up in words like "warsh", I had always thought it was an Indiana thing based on people I knew and worked with who grew up there and lived there.  But not all such people had that R insertion.
Conservation of mass requires that the Rs dropped in Boston reappear somewhere, evidently Baltimore and Indiana.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm with the majority on this.  Cleopatra said: "Whoever refuses to fix these potholes can kiss my" BLANK.  Brett, what do you have?



As far as Rs showing up in words like "warsh", I had always thought it was an Indiana thing based on people I knew and worked with who grew up there and lived there.  But not all such people had that R insertion.
Conservation of mass requires that the Rs dropped in Boston reappear somewhere, evidently Baltimore and Indiana.

So in other words the Boston Accent is a linguistic black hole so massive that the singularity punches a hole in space-time resulting in the "R's" reemerging in jumbled disasters of regional dialects?

Now you got me thinking about Evil Richard Dawson from The Running Man. 

[empirestate]

It's definitely "ass-fault". I think the "ash-fault" pronunciation is just a matter of imprecision, similar to "comfterble" or "intregal" or "Worchester"–the eye sees the right letters but the tongue gets a bit confused as to their correct order.


iPhone

[wxfree]

I don't know if it's Texan or if it's Southern or if it's just me, but I've always pronounced it "azphalt."  It's a word not used frequently enough for me to have a good understanding of how it's pronounced widely around here, but from what I've heard (in places like public highway project meetings) it seems I picked up the common pronunciation.

[wanderer2575]

Just don't ask us to pronounce "realtor."

[pumpkineater2]

I've always pronounced it ass-phalt and always have heard it pronounced that way.

[1995hoo]

I don't know if it's Texan or if it's Southern or if it's just me, but I've always pronounced it "azphalt."  It's a word not used frequently enough for me to have a good understanding of how it's pronounced widely around here, but from what I've heard (in places like public highway project meetings) it seems I picked up the common pronunciation.

Same here. The "as" part sounds like the word "as," with a hard "s" or "z" sound, whereas the word "ass" has a soft "s" sound. All my relatives are from Brooklyn, BTW, so I doubt it's a Southern or Texas thing.

"Ass-fault" sounds like a disease of the rectum.

[Mr. Matté]

I'm with the majority on this.  Cleopatra said: "Whoever refuses to fix these potholes can kiss my" BLANK.  Brett, what do you have?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSFuFc0Tr8A
"I glad you used your deep voice."

[kphoger]

I had never heard of any pronunciation other than ass-fault until this thread.  Never.

[GaryV]

Some Boston/MA accents preserve the conservation of R within themselves.  For example, President Kennedy always talked about Cuba-er and California-er.

[SignGeek101]

Always "ashfault" for me. It appears I'm in the minority.

[Max Rockatansky]

Always "ashfault" for me. It appears I'm in the minority.

Given how asphalt is spelt I'm somewhat surprised to never recall someone calling it "asp-halt" like there was a den of snakes guarding the lost Ark or something:

Incidentally they never hit on what happened to Sallah in Crystal Skull but talked about what happened Henry Jones Sr. and Marcus Brody.  Were the camels in the Last Crusade enough to make for Sallah losing his brother-in law's car?...we may never know?

[mukade]

As far as Rs showing up in words like "warsh", I had always thought it was an Indiana thing based on people I knew and worked with who grew up there and lived there.  But not all such people had that R insertion.
Conservation of mass requires that the Rs dropped in Boston reappear somewhere, evidently Baltimore and Indiana.

I live in central Indiana, and very, very few paeople here say things like "Warshington". Ditto for Northern Indiana - no one ever said that, but some really did say "da" instead of "the" - for example, "da region". I have worked with two people from Missouri (St. Louis and Kirksville) who did always say "warsh". I used to kid the guy from St. Louis about it, but he was not going to change.

As for "ash-falt", I did hear that as a kid more than once somewhere - either in Michigan or in a Canadian school I went to while in Japan. In Michigan, I also heard people call a chimney a "chimley".

[jeffandnicole]

I had never heard of any pronunciation other than ass-fault until this thread.  Never.

Same here.

[7/8]

"Ass-fault" sounds like a disease of the rectum.

Lol, I knew someone would make this joke 

Always "ashfault" for me. It appears I'm in the minority.

Yay, I'm not the only one! There seems to be a clear split between Canadians and Americans so far. I'm hoping some British and Australian posters will chime in too.

As far as Rs showing up in words like "warsh", I had always thought it was an Indiana thing based on people I knew and worked with who grew up there and lived there.  But not all such people had that R insertion.
Conservation of mass requires that the Rs dropped in Boston reappear somewhere, evidently Baltimore and Indiana.

From what I've read, this is most common in older people from the Midwest. I've never heard it myself though.

[slorydn1]

Ass-fault, and I grew up in the midwest, but I've lived in eastern NC 25+ years now too, and we say ass-fault here too. Now, I did hear an announcer that was doing the 6 hours of the Glen on Fox Sports this weekend say Ash-fault (I think it was Calvin Fish, but if it was he's a Brit that is now lives here).

+1 to whomever mentioned "warsh" above-that was big in southwestern lower Michigan when I was a kid-as well as "Melk" for milk, and pop for soda (etc etc etc).

[cpzilliacus]

Ass-fault in Maryland.

[bulldog1979]

I've heard both as-fault and ass-fault, with the hard and soft s sounds, respectively.