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Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by housecarpenter on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:10AM (#29794899)
English doesn't tolerate word-final -mb. It's always pronounced as -m, and the -b isn't pronounced when a suffix is added either.

Other examples: dumb, tomb, comb, womb, numb, thumb, catacomb, Coulomb. All of these have a silent B.

Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by hypertele-Xii on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:23AM (#29795015)
In most of these cases the final B is itself silent but elongates the previous wovel for me. "dumb" is pronounced longer than "dum", and it's the U that gets elongated. The difference is subtle, but my native tongue has "long wovels" so I'm trained to detect the difference.
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by julesnp on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:29AM (#29795092)
That's true for the -omb words, but I've never heard anyone elongate the 'u' in any of the -umb words, at least not in Canadian English.
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by CRConrad on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @12:45PM (#29797541)
Paljon suomalaisia täällä?
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by hypertele-Xii on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:33AM (#29809404)
Empiirisesti ehkä muutama tuhannesta.
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by ghc on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:26AM (#29795057)
Wait, what? None of those have a silent B, at least in my region. Are there places that pronounce the same as womb as "woom"?
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by kmm on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @10:05AM (#29795502)
Can I ask what region you live in? Pronouncing <womb> as /wuːm/ is the dominant pronunciation in every English speaking country, so much so that I can't recall ever hearing it differently, and I'm surprised you've never heard it. It's not a recent change either, the /b/ disappeared somewhere before the 14th century.
Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by ghc on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @11:21AM (#29796503)
New England. I've never paid enough attention when traveling to notice (those words aren't exactly the most common to hear), but when I say "woom" my lips end closed, and when I say "womb" my lips end opened after closing. The b isn't "voiced", per se, but it does change the way the word sounds to me.

And to be fair, I am aware New England English is its own distinct thing so I might have grown up in a bubble:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_English

Re:Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt' by selimthegrim on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @12:15PM (#29797171)
NE Ohio and I always pronounced the b too (akin to New England I guess)