What is the name for a word that is pronounced differently in two different contexts, even though neither...

language/english/pronunciation/context.pronunciation New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

What is the name for a word that is pronounced differently in two
different contexts, even though neither the meaning nor the speaker has
changed?

Thus, we are not asking for homographs (where the meaning changes) or
variants (where the dialect changes).  I don't know the answer to this
question; I'd be interested in seeing other examples.

-- Chris Cole <chris@questrel.com>

Show solution

How about "the"?  I pronounce it "thee" when it is followed by a vowel,
and "thuh" otherwise.  (And I'm pleased to see that my dictionary backs
me up.)

Others?

-- Tom Magliery <mag@cs.uiuc.edu>

[ Editor: no name for such words was found in the collected postings. ]