# skądś - pronunciation



## Lorenc

What do you think is the most normal pronunciation of `skądś' (_=from somewhere or other_)? It seems to me that it is pronounced as `skonć' or perhaps with a little bit of nasality as `skąć'.


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## jasio

Lorenc said:


> What do you think is the most normal pronunciation of `skądś' (_=from somewhere or other_)?



I pronounce it more or less as [skontś], where "o" is closer then in pronoun "on", something in between a nasal "ą" and "on". But it may depend on a region or a speaker.



Lorenc said:


> It seems to me that it is pronounced as `skonć' or perhaps with a little bit of nasality as `skąć'.



Your observation about nasality is correct, but I would rather say [skonćś] or even [skońćś]. The terminating consonant is definitely longer than a regular "ć", hence it sounds more like "ćś". Also, soft (palatalised) consonants tend to soften preceding consonants (although this feature is regional, as far as I am aware) thus turning "n" into "ń". Similarly, "r" in "pierś" ('breast') is pronounced in a slightly different way than in "rower" ('bicicle'). This feature is almost unnoticeable for most speakers, unless they know about it.

I also found http://pl.forvo.com/word/skądś/. I am not sure if the pronunciation is typical for the marked region, for me it sounds as if the man had his nose blocked with a cold. Perhaps it's a hyper-correctness caused by recording of a single word... I doubt if he would really pronounce it this way during a regular conversation.


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## wolfbm1

My pronunciation of "skądś", in e.g. "skądś to znam", is [skąś].


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## jasio

wolfbm1 said:


> My pronunciation of "skądś", in e.g. "skądś to znam", is [skąś].



Good example. 
But try to check also other phrases, like 'skądś idę'. Polish phonotactics does not like long strings of consonants (in some regions - also crossing the word boundaries), so the pronunciation may be different. Is it?


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## Ben Jamin

jasio said:


> I pronounce it more or less as [skontś], where "o" is closer then in pronoun "on", something in between a nasal "ą" and "on". But it may depend on a region or a speaker.
> 
> 
> 
> Your observation about nasality is correct, but I would rather say [skonćś] or even [skońćś]. The terminating consonant is definitely longer than a regular "ć", hence it sounds more like "ćś". Also, soft (palatalised) consonants tend to soften preceding consonants (although this feature is regional, as far as I am aware) thus turning "n" into "ń". Similarly, "r" in "pierś" ('breast') is pronounced in a slightly different way than in "rower" ('bicicle'). This feature is almost unnoticeable for most speakers, unless they know about it.
> 
> I also found http://pl.forvo.com/word/skądś/. I am not sure if the pronunciation is typical for the marked region, for me it sounds as if the man had his nose blocked with a cold. Perhaps it's a hyper-correctness caused by recording of a single word... I doubt if he would really pronounce it this way during a regular conversation.


 I doubt that anybody can pronounce the word as "skońćś" with both "ć" and "ś" (maybe they think they do). It is either "skontś" (careful speech) or "skonć" (normal colloquial). "Skąś" sounds exotic for me. Is it a regionalism? 
By the way the "n" is actually a [n̪] (dental nasal).


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## wolfbm1

Ben Jamin said:


> (...) It is either "skontś" (careful speech) or "skonć" (normal colloquial). "Skąś" sounds exotic for me. Is it a regionalism?
> By the way the "n" is actually a [n̪] (dental nasal).


For me, "skonć" sounds exotic. I live in the kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship. But "skontś" is also a careful variant for me.


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## Soob

I'm from Swietokrzyskie and I pronauce it as " skąś". Sometimes it miight sound like "śkądś", but basically I use śkąś


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## dreamlike

My pronunciation is the same as that of Wolf and Soob. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anybody pronounce the word in question other than [skąś] here where I live (Lubelskie voivodeship).

 I can imagine it being pronounced as [skontś] or even [skądś] (with every phoneme enunciated) in careful speech, but [skonć], as suggested by Ben Jamin, is a no-no for me. Is it a regionalism by any chance?


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