rhyming

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

what whacky english are you speaking? Ebonics? I have never said "ornge" which, I assume, is pronunciation you refer too, which sounds dumb.

[fuzzyoctopus]

No, I'm just saying that the japanese would pronounce it "oh-ran-gee".  Three syllables to our one or two.  So the band is "oh-ran-gee ran-gee".

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I have always pronounced "orange" as one syllable, "ornj." Just because the letter "a" is there doesn't mean it makes any sound.

Hmm...do you also pronounce the "t" in "often" like an FDR-Fireside-Chat-influenced demmycrat??

[fuzzyoctopus]

I say the "t" in often.  

demmy-crat?

[42]

I actually do pronounce the "'a" in "orange", though it is soft. Still I definitely do pronouce it, rather than skipping it entirely. I also tend to make the word two syllables rather than one. Pronouncing it "ornj" seems too hurried.

And I do pronounce the "t" in "often."

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I pronounce it with 2 syllables (or-ange).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I know a few people who say it as one, but they're in the minority, and they are, in fact, wrong.

[Fellfrosch]

Rhyming intellectual with bisexual shows a lot of cleverness, especially because you're rhyming multiple syllables, so you get extra points. Rhyming words that don't rhyme is just lazy (keeping in mind that, no matter how close the sound may be, if it's still different then it doesn't count).

[fuzzyoctopus]

So you're saying that even though it's probably harder to come up with a word that *almost* rhymes 'orange' than to come up with intellectual/bisexual, it's not clever?  I'll see you do better then, please.

Fell I never knew you to be a bigot of any kind.  Must I next hear that you disdain the interesting etymological nuances of street slang and rap lyrics?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I want to think that he's kidding... your kidding right Fell?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I've read that pronouncing the "t" in "often" became more popular after FDR's fireside chats, because he pronounced it. (But it's wrong; so there.)

Anyway, I truly believe that most people say "orange" as one syllable (at least sometimes) when they aren't paying attention. Otherwise I surely would've pronounced it like the people around me (assuming that all of you are correct) as two syllables!!

And when I'm not hurried I still say "orange" as one syllable. It's just a long syllable. It's actually a pleasing smooth movement of articulators, starting in the back of the mouth and ending up in the front.

Oh yes and the Japanese pronounce "orange" as four syllables (okay, technically morae)--o-re-n-ji.

But if orange is two syllables, then, well...

throw the orange one
into your dungeon

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

that works less than orange and florins.
your dun geon
or     ange one

the middle syllables sound nothing alike, the consonants being split up and the accents being in different locations in the first two syllables of both.

As for orange being mono-syllabic, just because YOU say it does NOT mean that most people say it that way. I say "woman" incorrectly, much to the amusement of oen of my close friends. However, the fact that I have learned myself to say it the way I do does not have any root in the number of people near me, let alone in the world, who say it the way I do. In fact, I don't know ANYONE who says it the way I do.

In addition to Fuzzy's argument, which I find much more compelling than your own (-sexual is the FIRST thing I think of to rhyme with intellectual, actually, and that rather quickly).

But my most solid argument in this case is that if you can say that rhyming "orange" with "florins" violates the purpose of rhyming the final words entirely, then you are paying no attention whatsoever to what my couplet is saying.  Because for the purposes of the couple, slant rhyme is exactly what is called for. A better rhyme (were there one) would weaken the meaning.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

How do you pronounce "ange"? Rhyming with "flange"? I thought it rhymed with "munge" for those who pronounce it separately from the "or.""Stonehenge"? Or does it rhyme with "hinge"? Well, that's closer to the one in "florins." I was assuming more of a centralized vowel, a schwa. When people say "orange is two syllables because it has an 'a' in it" I wouldn't assume the "a" to be pronounced like the lax front high vowel. Any other words where "a" is pronounced that way you can think of?

I know the scansion is off, but there's zero problem with the consonants being attached to different syllables. That doesn't matter in normal speech.

I believe normal people say it as one syllable because it's phonetically an easy syllable to disappear in normal-speed speech. First it becomes a syllablic n, like the "n" at the end of the word "written" which usually has no vowel before it in normal speech, and then it just becomes a normal n.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I say it more like "fringe," which, incidentally, is the only way I've been able to find a dictionary display it. I don't think I've heard anyone say it like "plunge," but that was a regional accent difference, and happens in the deep south. Once I had someone try to defend "orange" rhyming with "range" (which was right out, obviously), but she finally admitted it was only a visual rhyme, not an aural one.

The syllable the consonant with does affect how it sounds, though. There's as much a difference there as where the stresses hit.

I'm sure it's an easy syllable to drop out, but I don't know many people who drop it out. At least not entirely. In less urban areas around here I hear them say it as sort of a 1.5 syllable thing, sort of like isn't.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I must disagree with the consonant thing. "one" is a bad example (because of the "w" sound), but "on" is slightly better (still not that good though, because of scansion). People don't pause between words in normal conversation; if there's a consonant at the end of one syllable and a vowel at the beginning of the next, especially if the second syllable is unaccented, the consonant tends to shift to the beginning of the second syllable.

On m-w.com my pronunciation is listed fourth (unless you count the pronunciations listed as six different ones, because of those (-&)s).

I've checked with my family, and as well-educated suburban types, we all say it with one syllable. (I'm not, of course, saying that ALL well-educated suburban types will see it as one syllable, but I am saying it's not some kind of hick thing.)