English Multinyms
19 comments
·March 14, 2025yubiox
chrisoverzero
Where are you from that you consider all of these groups to have the same pronunciation?
bilekas
I've never heard of 'Multinyms' but I am right in thinking they're just homophones ?
robobro
The first line of text after the title:
> multinyms are examples of triple/quadruple/quintuple/sextuple homonyms.
> According to some definitions, a homonym is a word with the same pronunciation as, but different meaning than, another word. Thus, homonyms come in pairs (at least). However, some remarkable homonyms come in triples, as you may here behold.
scottshambaugh
Throw in regional accents and you’ll get many more! Aaron earned an iron urn: https://youtu.be/Esl_wOQDUeE?si=J34OmyDod7GHUrl1
tgv
Multinyms, so words with multiple pronounciations/names?
Anyway, I'm not a native speaker, but e.g. air, are, e'er, ere, err, heir does not sound identical to me. The Oxford English Dictionary says: ɛː, ɑː/ə, ɛː, ɛː, əː, ɛː, which makes are and err different. Unfortunately, the author doesn't give a source, so it's probably just his dialect?
randallsquared
The "are" listed is "a metric unit of measure, equal to 100 square meters", not a conjugation of "be". Google pronounces it like "air".
ndsipa_pomu
I'm a native English speaker (UK) and I'd pronounce some of those words differently. Certainly "air" and "are" sound very different. "e'er" would sound slightly different as it's spoken almost like two syllables, though not quite.
I'd also take issue with "sick" and "Sikh" as Sikh has a slightly different vowel sound - somewhat longer than the short "i" in sic/sick. I'd say that "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms.
Further down the list, I've just spotted "taught, taut, tot" and "tot" doesn't belong there.
bdsa
I also would have said "Sikh" and "seek" are homonyms until recently when I found out that Sikhs' preferred pronunciation is generally to sound closer to "sick" (aspirate the H if you like)
ndsipa_pomu
To be fair I don't know any Sikhs, though there is a Sikh community where I live (there's a Sikh temple at the bottom of my road).
I'm going to listen out for how Sikhs pronounce it.
null
smckk
Real eyes realize real lies.
sparsely
Some of these have different pronunciation (depending on accent?), e.g. parish vs perish
ealexhudson
Within UK dialect there would be some significant differences in many of these words, even ignoring the meddle/mettle examples - farrow/pharaoh is easily distinguishable, too.
I would say, though, that to people _outside_ the dialect, there may be many more words that are indistinguishable. Listening to Scots speakers requires a lot more effort for me because to my ears, many of the differences in the words are extremely subtle.
oneeyedpigeon
Some of them are in multiple languages, which surely violates the principle?
Annatar01
Yeah for sure, i think if i use homonyms close to each other i might even try to emphasize the difference. For /ˈparɪʃ/ and /ˈpɛrɪʃ/ its definitely an accent thing.
cjs_ac
Other examples:
* borough, burrow
* call, caul, col
* knot, naught, not
* sic, sick, Sikh
* sics, Sikhs, six
* taught, taut, tot
* cinque, sink
* dew, do
* mall, moll, maul, mawl
crustycoder
Many of these are totally pants/panz/pænts
petesergeant
I would add yaw/yore/your/you’re
I also maintain a list of these. Here are some I don't see there:
greater grater grader
baron barren bearing
your cees, seas, sees, seize is missing cease
grisly grizzly gristly
pedal peddle petal
I also put since with cense, cents, scents, sense
steal steel still
peal peel pill
If you need help: Ewe mite higher too guise two bee yore assistance.