pronouncing either/neither

[geekymummy]

Either as eever or eye-the?

Neither as neever or nigh-the?

I think (though not sure) it is purely a matter of preference, though no doubt there have been various historical trends. I use both - no conscious reason, just depends on what sounds right with the rest of the sentence.

Let's call the whole thing off.

Doesn't it epends where you're brought up? On your accent? Or perhaps it is just preference, regardless of accent. FWIW I'm from London & I say eye-ther.

Ouch. Depend, not epends.

eye-the is fine although not with the 'v' ... it's eye-the or ee-ther (I'm the former personally)

Well I'd say that the 'v' in 'eever' and 'neever' is wrong. I personally say 'eyether' and 'nighther'.

either way, it don't matter

I think I say both. But mostly eye-the and nigh-the. Ds1 sometimes says neever and somefing so I hit him with a big stick I keep for such occasions

'Neever' is probably appropriate if the whole sentence is 'I ain't done nuffink neever', or similar.

yes you do moo

Well, eether or neether is fine, as is eye-the or nye-the

eever or neever is wrong, where ever you come from. even if its a colloquial accent... the word is not spelt with a V anywhere, so it makes no difference how you pronounce it, so long as the blardy V is not there.

OK I do...but not very hard.

As is starting a sentence without a capital letter...

lol I know, I messed up wiv [sic] the v

Apparently there is a study somewhere that says that we all use both variants and it depends on the vowel sounds in the preceding and following bits of the utterance.
So people are likely to say "Neither I not John" as nye-the (because of the "I") but "I didn't see him either" would be ee-the (because of "see").
If that makes sense.

That would be nor not not (new keyboard, honest...)

And if you said "I didn't see him either" it'd be more likely to be eye-the because of the stress on I.

Reading this, I pronounce the first eee and the second eye.

Neether John nor Jane won the game. N-eye-ther thought it was fair.

Don't know why I do that,

Thats interesting prism. I hadn't thought of that. It is true though, I just checked myself saying a few sentences ( my god, I need a life )

Well, considering this is in Pedants' Corner, most of you are wrong.

Should be 'eye'ther, and 'nye'-ther

Found this on Wikipedia

Foofi, it is incredibly difficult to 'explain' pronunciation in written text...

I dont see whats wrong with eye-the nye-the. The word THE and THER is actually pronounced the same way in this case. The difference his hardly audible. IMO

Give it a go!

I agree Suzie - it's the first part of the words people are talking about - either an ee sound or eye sound.

I say both. I don't know what it depends on - never thought about it - just what seems to sound best, I suppose.