phonetics poll

[gusl]

Poll: do "Columbia" and "Colombia" sound the same to you? "Columbia University" is too long and saying "CU" sounds like a terrible idea.

Comments

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

<< I have no idea why the change in the second vowel changes how I say the first vowel, but it does >>

I can totally see that.

I think that the word "Colombia" triggers associations with less schwa-ized languages, Portuguese (in my case) and Spanish (in your case).

If one ate the first vowel, and said Clumbia/Clombia, I suspect almost every native speaker would think of the university.

[chrisamaphone]

yeah. it works this way for me too. i say kuh-luhm-bia vs. coh-lohm-bia.