Shone (US)

[Nigel Greenwood]

As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common? See:

http://phonetik.blogger.de/

(in German).

Now, why exactly -- I then wondered -- am I so amazed? Well, partly
because the word is relatively rare ("was shining" is commoner), so I
may never have heard it spoken in an American film; & then it doesn't
appear in the mental list most English-speakers have of common UK/US
differences (leisure, lever, etc). So we probably simply assume that
any word not in that list is pronounced the same on both sides of the
Atlantic.

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical Greek/IPA/
Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[Peter T. Daniels]

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional

Sounds normal to me.

Post by Nigel Greenwood
http://phonetik.blogger.de/
(in German).
Now, why exactly -- I then wondered -- am I so amazed? Well, partly
because the word is relatively rare ("was shining" is commoner), so I

It occurs in hymns -- "ANd his glory shone around"

Post by Nigel Greenwood
may never have heard it spoken in an American film; & then it doesn't
appear in the mental list most English-speakers have of common UK/US
differences (leisure, lever, etc). So we probably simply assume that
any word not in that list is pronounced the same on both sides of the
Atlantic.

[Nigel Greenwood]

Post by Peter T. Daniels

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional

Sounds normal to me.

Post by Nigel Greenwood
http://phonetik.blogger.de/
(in German).
Now, why exactly -- I then wondered -- am I so amazed? Well, partly
because the word is relatively rare ("was shining" is commoner), so I

It occurs in hymns -- "ANd his glory shone around"

Oh, sure -- it's not _that_ uncommon, of course. In fact the whole
topic came up in the German blog because the Blogmeister recently
heard an American reading Auden's poem Mus�e des Beaux Arts, in which
there is a crucial "shone/on" rhyme (the "on" is the final word of the
poem). Apparently the reader pronounced it /SoUn/, but was
immediately corrected.

[BTW Germans seem to be split 50/50 between der Blog & das Blog. No
takers for die Blog.]

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical Greek/IPA/
Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[p***@abo.fi]

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

[Ekkehard Dengler]

Post by p***@abo.fi

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

As if spelled "shon".

Regards,
Ekkehard

[Joachim Pense]

Post by Ekkehard Dengler

Post by p***@abo.fi

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

As if spelled "shon".

WWG

[p***@abo.fi]

Post by Ekkehard Dengler

Post by p***@abo.fi

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

As if spelled "shon".

I see, another sequel to that "Agatha Christie's Mousetrap" story.

[Peter T. Daniels]

Post by p***@abo.fi

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

To rhyme with gone.

[Jim Breen]

Post by p***@abo.fi

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

How else should it be pronounced???!?

In BrE (and AusE, NZE, etc.) it rhymes with "John".

[Harlan Messinger]

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
pronunciation, & if so where is it most common?

That's the only way I know to pronounce it.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:42:06 -0700, Nigel Greenwood

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in
a German phonetics blog that a (the?) common US
pronunciation of the word "shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme
with "bone". Is this a regional pronunciation, & if so
where is it most common?

I've never heard any other pronunciation in the U.S. It's
the only one mentioned by AHD4; M-W OnLine adds a
pronunciation rhyming with <gone>, noting that it's
especially Canadian and British.

[...]

Brian

[Paul J Kriha]

Post by Brian M. Scott
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:42:06 -0700, Nigel Greenwood

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in
a German phonetics blog that a (the?) common US
pronunciation of the word "shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme
with "bone". Is this a regional pronunciation, & if so
where is it most common?

I've never heard any other pronunciation in the U.S. It's
the only one mentioned by AHD4; M-W OnLine adds a
pronunciation rhyming with <gone>, noting that it's
especially Canadian and British.

CollinsED shows two pronunciations, the first one rhymes
with "gone", the second (marked U.S.) rhymes with "bone".

pjk

Post by Brian M. Scott
[...]
Brian

[Jim Breen]

Post by Brian M. Scott
I've never heard any other pronunciation in the U.S. It's
the only one mentioned by AHD4; M-W OnLine adds a
pronunciation rhyming with <gone>, noting that it's
especially Canadian and British.

And Australian, New Zealand, Sith Effrikan, Indian,
Singaporean, etc. In fact everywhere English is spoken
except in the YewEss.

[António Marques]

I've never heard any other pronunciation in the U.S. It's the only
one mentioned by AHD4; M-W OnLine adds a pronunciation rhyming with
<gone>, noting that it's especially Canadian and British.

And Australian, New Zealand, Sith Effrikan, Indian, Singaporean, etc.
In fact everywhere English is spoken except in the YewEss.

What is curious is that I'm having a hard time finding occurrences of
the word, and yet I'd never thought of it as especially rare. Nor did I
ever imagine it could be anything other than [Sown] - even if I've grown
accostumed to the british talking funny (no offense intended; I find
much more of a difference between colloquial - and stage - BrE and the
kind you hear in speeches and song than I can find in the whole of AmE).

[Seán O'Leathlóbhair]

Post by António Marques

I've never heard any other pronunciation in the U.S. It's the only
one mentioned by AHD4; M-W OnLine adds a pronunciation rhyming with
<gone>, noting that it's especially Canadian and British.

And Australian, New Zealand, Sith Effrikan, Indian, Singaporean, etc.
In fact everywhere English is spoken except in the YewEss.

What is curious is that I'm having a hard time finding occurrences of
the word, and yet I'd never thought of it as especially rare. Nor did I
ever imagine it could be anything other than [Sown] - even if I've grown
accostumed to the british talking funny (no offense intended; I find
much more of a difference between colloquial - and stage - BrE and the
kind you hear in speeches and song than I can find in the whole of AmE).

I am gravely offended by that remark (*).

I am as surprised as Nigel to find that this word is commonly
pronounced differently in the US. Like you, I don't regard the word
as especially rare but it may be since I spend a lot of time talking
to Americans and have been made aware of this difference.

(*) Not really.

--
Se�n � Leathl�bhair

[Nigel Greenwood]

Post by Seán O'Leathlóbhair
I am as surprised as Nigel to find that this word is commonly
pronounced differently in the US. Like you, I don't regard the word
as especially rare but it may be since I spend a lot of time talking
to Americans and have been made aware of this difference.

Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical Greek/IPA/
Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[Richard Wordingham]

Post by Nigel Greenwood
Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'. That
is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and Chambers
concurs.

Richard.

[Trond Engen]

Post by Richard Wordingham

Post by Nigel Greenwood
Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'.
That is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and
Chambers concurs.

That would seem to correspond to a Gmc. strong/weak opposition
"shine"/"make shine", but I can't find a weak (transitive, causative)
verb in the etymological dictionaries. Is it a recent development (or
coinage) by analogy?

[Brian M. Scott]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:18:38 +0200, Trond Engen
[...]

Post by Trond Engen

Post by Richard Wordingham
For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'.
That is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and
Chambers concurs.

The OED notes that this sense is 'inflected _shined_'.

Post by Trond Engen
That would seem to correspond to a Gmc. strong/weak opposition
"shine"/"make shine", but I can't find a weak (transitive, causative)
verb in the etymological dictionaries. Is it a recent development (or
coinage) by analogy?

It's all the same verb; the OED notes the weak past tense
from the 14th century on but describes it as U.S. dialect
and archaic (with the exception noted above).

Brian

[James Dolan]

in article <j-***@telenor.com>,
trond engen <***@engen.priv.no> wrote:

|Richard Wordingham skreiv:
|
|> "Nigel Greenwood" <***@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
|>
|>> Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
|>> "shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
|>> dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
|>> shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
|>> these cases BrE would usually have "shone".
|>
|> For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'.
|> That is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and
|> Chambers concurs.
|
|That would seem to correspond to a Gmc. strong/weak opposition
|"shine"/"make shine", but I can't find a weak (transitive, causative)
|verb in the etymological dictionaries. Is it a recent development (or
|coinage) by analogy?

for the most part my casual googling seemed to show that "shone" is
preferred over "shined" in american english in those contexts where
it's also preferred in british english. i did however notice the
following:

"shone his torch": 2,730
"shined his torch": 20
"shone his flashlight": 819
"shined his flashlight": 14,200

[Nigel Greenwood]

Post by Richard Wordingham

Post by Nigel Greenwood
Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'. That
is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and Chambers
concurs.

... & so do I, now that I think about it!

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical Greek/IPA/
Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[Paul J Kriha]

Post by Richard Wordingham

Post by Nigel Greenwood
Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'. That
is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and Chambers
concurs.
Richard.

I don't recall to have ever seen a passive "shone" used in
BrE shoe-shining trade. I googled for "shoes shone". All the
the returns had "shine" in regular past tense of the type:
"my shoes shone like mirrors in the sun". Nothing much to
do directly with shoe-shining.

pjk

[r***@yahoo.com]

Post by Paul J Kriha

Post by Richard Wordingham

Post by Nigel Greenwood
Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half a
dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have my
shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

For polishing, the British past tense is usually (always?) 'shined'. That
is my usage (though normally I would use the verb 'polish'), and Chambers
concurs.
Richard.

I don't recall to have ever seen a passive "shone" used in
BrE shoe-shining trade. I googled for "shoes shone". All the
"my shoes shone like mirrors in the sun". Nothing much to
do directly with shoe-shining.

Shoes can't passively shine without having been actively shined ...
unless there's a magical shoe that takes a shine to shining and
decides to shine away without any help from a shiner (hmm, do black
eyes shine?).

[James Dolan]

in article <***@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,
nigel greenwood <***@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

|On Jun 22, 1:25 pm, Seán O'Leathlóbhair <***@yahoo.com> wrote:
|
|> I am as surprised as Nigel to find that this word is commonly
|> pronounced differently in the US. Like you, I don't regard the
|> word as especially rare but it may be since I spend a lot of time
|> talking to Americans and have been made aware of this difference.
|
|Since my first post I've discovered that it's much commoner to use
|"shined" for the past tense in AmE. Burchfield (Fowler3) gives half
|a dozen examples from American writers ("shined in the sun", "I have
|my shoes shined", "his hair was combed ... until it shined"). In all
|these cases BrE would usually have "shone".

in all these cases american english would usually have "shone", too,
except in that one case ("shoes shined") where british english
wouldn't have "shone", either.

you didn't really make it clear though whether you meant "than to use
'shone'" or "than in british english". the latter seems probably more
or less correct.

there may be other reasons why a lot of us (including me) were
surprised to hear of the pronunciation difference. i must have heard
pink floyd's "shone like the sun" dozens of times without noticing
that they were pronouncing it strangely. as a matter of fact i still
can't tell that they're pronouncing it the way the oed says to, though
i can at least tell now that they're not pronouncing it the american
way.

[Dušan Vukoti]

Post by Nigel Greenwood
As a native speaker of UK English, I was amazed to read in a German
phonetics blog that a (the?) common US pronunciation of the word
"shone" is /SoUn/, to rhyme with "bone". Is this a regional
http://phonetik.blogger.de/
(in German).
Now, why exactly -- I then wondered -- am I so amazed? Well, partly
because the word is relatively rare ("was shining" is commoner), so I
may never have heard it spoken in an American film; & then it doesn't
appear in the mental list most English-speakers have of common UK/US
differences (leisure, lever, etc). So we probably simply assume that
any word not in that list is pronounced the same on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Nigel
--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical Greek/IPA/
Persian/Russian/Turkish):http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

Shine (shone, shined) could be compared to the Serbian words sinuti
(sijati glow, shine), sjaj (sheen), sjajan (brilliant); All the above
words are logically connected to the SUN (Serbian SUNCE) and the
ancient Sur-Gon basis (Serbian �aren /brindled, piebald, motley,
variegated/). So-called IE roots swel- sawel-, sun- are the pure
"adjustment" to the existing IE words for the sun. Italian sole and
Russian solnce (sun) are also descendants of the Sur-Gon parent.

The Greek word 'elios sprang from the Hor-Gon basis; Greek /
'elios and Egyptian Horus (Ra) are cognates (R to L sound change)!

DV