I'm looking for an explanation of why the i is pronounced short instead of long in "mince" while it has an "e" at the end. It seems it's there to make the "c" a soft one (/s/) and not to change the sound of i comparable to "ride". Wondering if we have other similar words
asked Dec 17, 2020 at 1:13
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2since you ask...– user33415Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 1:28
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1I'm afraid I don't understand what you're asking. Can you clarify your question?– Rayan KhanCommented Dec 17, 2020 at 3:35
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I think the list of words you're asking for would fill many pages. The short answer is yes.– Travis WebbCommented Dec 17, 2020 at 4:29
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For a counterpart without the "e," consider zinc: pronounced /k/. If it were "zince" (which is not a word) native speakers would be likely to pronounce it with a soft c, rhyming with "since."– TypeIACommented Dec 17, 2020 at 13:13
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The fact that the c is soft before e is regular. The fact that the vowel is short or a monophthong, rather than being caused to lengthen due to the final e, is also regular, since such lengthening typically doesn't occur in this scenario. I think it's because two consonants separate the first vowel from the final e, not just one.– rjpondCommented Dec 17, 2020 at 13:49
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2 Answers
Wondering if we have other similar words
From RhymeZone:
since
prince
rinse
Vince
quince
convince
wince
evince
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And similarly (in the sense that the vowel is monophthongal and the c is soft), "dance", "pence", "nonce", "dunce".– rjpondCommented Dec 17, 2020 at 13:46
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RhmeZone is also an awesome tool to know. The remarkable exception here would be "rinse" indeed. Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 16:34
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"any other e-ending words not ending in <se> or <ce>"? There are thousands of e-ending words not ending in <se> or <ce>.– SamCommented Dec 17, 2020 at 16:45
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Obviously, I'm not referring to all other "thousands" words. Just the subset that relate to the question. Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 5:09
You have it the wrong way around. It's not "add an e to a word and it will lengthen the preceding vowel". The history is rather complicated, but I'll try to simplify it.
The silent e that you see in words like bide, ride, side etc wasn't always silent; it was pronounced /ə/ (schwa) in middle English. When it went silent, it lengthened the vowel in the preceding syllable in "certain" words.
Mostly in words that had "[other segments] + VOWEL + SINGLE CONSONANT + ə". So when the /ə/ was lost in those words, it lengthened the VOWEL.
In words that had "[other segments] + VOWEL + more than one CONSONANT + ə", the vowel in the preceding syllable didn't often lengthen because the consonant cluster didn't let the vowel to lengthen. So in words since, mince, evince, prince etc, there were consonant clusters before the /ə/ so the vowel didn't get lengthened and in modern English, these words have short vowels. There might be exceptions, of course, but from what I've read, that's what happened to these words.