How do you pronounce finger and singer?

[cakeorwine]

www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/31/north-south-english-dialects-language-pronunciation-study

"Whether someone pronounces the “g” in “finger” and “singer” is another key dialect marker, with a silent “g” in singer now the most common form.In the 1950s, speakers who articulated the “g” in both words were mainly in the north-west of England and the West Midlands, but the new survey found that this pronunciation is spreading beyond its traditional limits, into Herefordshire, Preston, the Ribble valley and Nottinghamshire"

I think I pronounce it 'fin / ger' and 'sin / er'

I don't think the 'g' is silent when I pronounce it.

Unless I am missing something - is there a form of a silent 'g' in these words?

I’m from the NW and definitely pronounce the G and I’m struggling to envisage the silent g!

surely that would be Sinner?

finger with a hard g sound “fing-grr” but singer is “sing-er” without the hard g. But it is there in “sing”

I've just been speaking to myself saying these words.

YouTube doesn't help. Maybe it's "fing / er' ?

I don't know - any linguists on here?

Soft G in singer , hard in finger.

I'm from the North West and pronounce the g in both words

I'm from the very north west of England, and nobody here would say singer the same as finger.

Finger has a hard G sound like linger and stronger whereas singer just has the "ng" sound on it's own.

This is baffling me - I can't envisage singer as anything other than a hard g sound like finger, linger etc!

I'm a southerner and use a very soft g in singer and hard g in finger.

From Belfast and pronounce singer with a soft g sound and finger with a hard g sound. Pretty much universal in NI I reckon.

I think I've forgotten how I speak!

Finger, singer, linger, ringer, winger - all the same to me. I can't imagine how else you'd say them! I'm in south Lancashire.

Soft g is surely a j sound like in giraffe?
I say finger with a hard g
Singer has the ng digraph, like at the end of the word ring.

I'm South East

I don't understand at all. A soft g makes a "j" sound like the g in age or fringe. Singer with a soft g would be "sinj-er" surely? Who is saying that? Genuinely, never heard it.

An audible G in both. Why on earth would either have a silent G?

Do you pronounce the 'ng' sound the same way in the words 'longing' and 'longer'? If not it's the same difference, and if so, here's how 'longing' sounds without the hard g:
dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/longing

I naturally say singer without the hard g but my BFF is Brummie so it sometimes slips in unconsciously. So they both sound right to me!

I say finger with more pronounced g sound like fin guh with the g as in gun.

Singer runs together more when I say it so the gn sound is more like in gnocchi

Rather than a totally silent “g” (which would be sinn-er), people mean that they pronounce the g as part of the “ng” sound but then not again after that.
So “sing-er” as opposed to “sing-ger”
I don’t think anyone says “fing-er”, the usual pronunciation is “fing-ger” but with singer it’s more regional.
I think someone may need to make a voice note on this to fully explain ha ha

Fin-ger with hard g like in gun

Sing-er with ng sound which is like in longing

Great hilarity on the French exchange when we taught them the word minger, which rhymes with singer, and they kept pronouncing it to rhyme with finger.

I think people are mistakenly saying “soft g”- you’re correct that a soft g is a “j” sound, so isn’t what people mean in finger or singer. They just mean they say the “ng” sound all as one, so there isn’t a hard “g” sound on its own.

fing ger and sing er

The difference is that some people pronounce them like sing-ger and fing-ger (ie the g is vocalised as a hard g) and others as sing-er and fing-er (where the hard g isn’t vocalised). Many people pronounce the two words differently so they don’t quite rhyme - for me finger and linger both have the vocalised hard g but singer and winger don’t.

In some regional accents, minger does rhyme with finger (fing-ger) and not with singer (sing-er)!

I agree that soft g is normally like in giraffe, but the ng sound is a softer kind of g. It's not silent, you can hear it, but it's barely there.