Native speakers of English don't, unless dictating to children. In ... or "handbag" (which in rapid speech is indistinguishable from "ham-bag"). I'm English and have just a vestige of a "d" in handsome and a

No it isn't. Yes it is - in the same vein as Hee-Low as the abbreviated form of helicopter. I have *never* heard anyone in the UK use See-My - not even on the BBC. No, it is *not* "the US pronunciation". I lived in the US for fifty

What *has* happened is that, as is common, speech groups further from the "linguistic center" of the language have tended ... be largely in the US, notably in California, and that's where the most rapid change is likely to take

} }> }>> In the newsgroup alt.english.usage , the term "dialect" was recently }>> discussed, and while doing research on the matter I found the }>> following: }>> }>> From }>>