Tousled

[enismirdal]

In conversation today I used the word "tousled" in reference to someone's hair (not as an insult!!).

I was greeted with blank stares. One person suggested a different pronunciation.

I worried a bit, contemplating whether I'd been mispronouncing this word my entire life (this has happened before), but recordings on the internet agree with me. However, a bit more googling suggests many people pronounce it "tosseled" or even "tooselled".

So, LJverse, how do YOU pronounce "tousled", in the context of hair like this?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/__wilderness__/]

I pronouce it 'toosled'. But then, I am notorious for mispronouncing things or pronouncing them the American way.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'd pronounce it sorta like "towelled", only with, you know, an s [z] thrown in. But I'm not a native speaker and am really not sure I ever came across the word outside of writing. The IPA transcription on the page you linked to appears to support my non-native speaker intuition though. \o/

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it in my head "toosled", though I'm not sure I've ever said it aloud to anybody - or heard it spoken by someone else either. Maybe I got that pronunciation from knowing French, or maybe from words like "tour"?

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Same as Oloriel, like towel with a z - towzelled, emphasis on the first syllable. That's standard pronunciation, surely?

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought too, but everyone seemed so flummoxed when I did that!

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

You need friends with better vocabularies?

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

That's clearly the correct "English" English pronunciation of it anyway. In Scotland we pronounce lot of words differently even when trying not to speak Scots dialect and aiming for standard English - "our" often comes out closer to "oor" even if we think we're doing the "ouw" sound, for instance.

[eawen-penallion.livejournal.com]

'T-ow(as in 'Ow, that hurt!')-seld'

Does that make sense?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I’m not sure I do pronounce it, maybe I’ve only encountered it in writing? My initial assumption was /aʊ/, i.e. to rhyme with loud, but I’m now seized with uncertainty.

[aduial-peredhel.livejournal.com]

I know how I pronounce it, but I can't put it into writing. I also don't think I pronounce it correctly anyway.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever used the word in conversation, but always read it as 'tows-eld'. (Now off to read all the other options ...)

[joyful-molly.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever used the word, but I'd probably say "toosled", as "tousled" has a French ring to me.

in the context of hair like this

That's not tousled, that's terrible. :P

[cjwatson]

Towzelled (adjusted for the unusual NI pronounciation of "ow", but it's certainly not toozelled or anything like that).

[jaiden-s.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it with the ow sound, like in noun or towel.

[melime.livejournal.com]

Tow-suld.

[aglarien1.livejournal.com]

I pronounce the first syllable like toss. Accent on the first syllable. Had no idea there were so many pronunciations!

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

Hair like the hair on the link might get pronounced as 'unfortunate hairdryer-related incident'. Tousled in my head is pronounced 'tows'll'd' but north of a certain point undetermined by Science, or in America, I'd pronounce it 'too-s'll'd'. But I've never heard the word voiced.

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

'Toosled' here; had no idea there were so many pronunciation variations o_O

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it 'tussled' (with a very flat sort of [u] sound, like a northerner would say 'bun'). That's just how people pronounce it where I come from, I think... But then you're not from a million miles away from where I come from... I think you're using the standard RP pronunciation there. But I could be wrong! I always think of 'towzled' as a southernism.

[cobalt-skye.livejournal.com]

'Toos-eld'