It's time for a change

[desh]

[Poll #1496312]

EDIT: OK, those of you who picked both "twenty ten" and "two thousand eleven" have some explaining to do.

Comments

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

You forgot "both."

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I'm British: two thousand AND nine.

[(Anonymous)]

twenty eleven leaves two vowel sounds together, fixed either by eliding into twenty 'leven or by inserting a glottal stop, two thousand eleven doesn't need any repair, neither does twenty ten.

-charley

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

two thousand AND nine

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

I think I can only refer to what happened in "aught nine" after I get more grizzled. Right now, I can only use the similar phrases ironically.

Frankly, I tend not to use the "two thousand/twenty" part at all, as when I say "that was back in oh-four", it's usually clear I mean 2004.

without resorting to IPA

[rahaeli.livejournal.com]

"twenty" "ten" -- two discrete units, rolling into each other in terms of stresses.

"twenty" "eleven" -- two discrete units, but the dual unstressed syllables with the same vowel sound (in my dialect at least) between the liminal boundaries come out sounding like a hiccup and trip your tonge; native english speakers don't often find dual unstressed syllables bookended by stressed syllables natural where the unstressed vowel sound is identical or near-identical: "TWEHN-teee eee-LEH-vuhn" is not a natural occurrance in my dialect (speakers contort things so they don't have to use them whenever possible), so it's either slur (TWEHN-tee-LEH-vun) or make it into "TWO THOU-suhnd-eee-LEH-vun".

(Note that the 'eee' in 'eleven' is slightly more midvowel than the "eee" in "twenty", but close enough, in my dialect.)

[goob712.livejournal.com]

I get to hear people say "Oh Ten" all the time. It makes me smile.

[intangiblehugs.livejournal.com]

yeah i definitely just say oh-nine most of the time... i may start saying oh-ten too :)

[krisispm.livejournal.com]

I think the "Twenty" format doesn't work on "Eleven" because:
a) two adjacent vowel sounds
b) eleven being three syllables

At work we already say "Twenty-Twelve."