Just vs Just pronunciation

[JeenLeen]

The word spelled just has two meanings I know of, and this post is about if it has two pronunciations or not based on which meaning if used.
The word "just" as in justice, being just or righteous or fair.
The word "just" as in the adjective being simply that. It is "just an apple" or "just a sign", nothing more.

I read a webcomic in PvP recently where the punchline was someone pronouncing both usages the same. I don't pronounce them the same. The justice-just I pronounce like the "just" in "justice", but the intensity-modifier one like "juss" or "guss". However, as I think about it, I'd comprehend it if someone used the pronunciations backwards. Though says "he's a juss guy" to be fair would sound odd, but I think I'd understand.

I'm guessing this might be a southern thing. I don't have much of a southern drawl, but it manifests in a few words (plus my purposeful adoption of "y'all" as a second person plural).
So, for y'all, do you pronounce those two usages differently or not?

[Khedrac]

For me it is one word with one way to pronounce it - "just".

[Keltest]

For me it is one word with one way to pronounce it - "just".

Ditto. This is the first ive heard of them being pronounced differently.

[JeenLeen]

If anyone here pronounces them the same and is in the southern US, that would be an interesting data point.

It might be a peculiarity of my own speech. There's a few phonemes I have trouble distinguishing between. For example, I would pronounce "melt" as "milt" (like "mill", but with a t at the end), except when saying the words "patty melt". I had no clue until I was talking with some friends and talked about melting something, and they had no idea what I meant, and I couldn't tell the difference between how we were pronouncing it until it was very clearly spelled out for me. I still have trouble pronouncing it right unless I mentally check how I say "patty melt" first.

Anyway, just curious if this is a dialectical thing or not. But it's neat to hear that, at least in some regions, they are pronounced the same.

[factotum]

UK here, I've never heard them pronounced differently.

[Imbalance]

I've been to the South and have heard "juss" in the context described. Personally, I almost always pronounce it with the "t" at the end, except when my Appalachian comes out, but that also changes vowel sounds in perplexing and sporadic ways and it sounds more like "jes'".

[Anonymouswizard]

Another Brit, and they've always been homophones to me.

[tyckspoon]

They're the same pronunciation, but dropping hard consonants on the ends of words is a pretty common accent/dialect change. 'Justice' doesn't lose it because that t is required to transition into the second syllable. I would bet that if you normally drop the t on 'just' it will change depending on what is following it - there are likely certain followup sounds where the t comes back because it's too awkward to say without it.

[sktarq]

I have heard it as "jusd" on occasion because people do the t-to-d drift here in California a lot. But even then it has been pretty rare and mostly limited to the habitually intoxicated/ those who have been associated with subculutres who value the affectation of such intoxication.
I do know one person with a deep Interior-West drawl who does that too...but couldn't say if it is at all dialect or just their idolect

That said in either California or the UK I have never heard them as anything but homophones

[Fyraltari]

So, what I’m getting from this is that there’s a webcomic out there that’s only understandable if you are from the South of the USA.


Neat.

[Xuc Xac]

According to Webster's, the adjective has one pronunciation. The adverb is pronounced the same but it also has variant regional pronunciations (probably because the adverb is used a lot more often).

[Tarmor]

Never heard more than one pronunciation here in Australia, either by Aussies or anyone from anywhere else.

[Peelee]

If anyone here pronounces them the same and is in the southern US, that would be an interesting data point.

Allow me to add an interesting data point. Everybody I know pronounces them the same and I have never even imagined they would be pronounced differently.

So, what I’m getting from this is that there’s a webcomic out there that’s only understandable if you are from the South of the USA.


Neat.
It just sounds like it would confuse me.

[Khedrac]

For me it is one word with one way to pronounce it - "just".


UK here, I've never heard them pronounced differently.


Another Brit, and they've always been homophones to me.

It occurs to me that we Brits are being forgetful! The late great Tommy Cooper, a comedian and magician had as his catchphrase "Just like that".
In recordings of Tommy you can (just) hear the "t" in "Just", but it's close enough to the "Juss" pronunciation that I would expect people used to that to have no issues understanding that word. Most people I have heard do Tommy Cooper impressions exaggerate this to "Juss like that"...

[Rynjin]

If anyone here pronounces them the same and is in the southern US, that would be an interesting data point.

Add another "interesting data point" to the list, from sunny Florida. The only time I hear people say "juss" is if they've had a few.

[Asmotherion]

I usually pronunce Just as in Justice "Ja-St".

Wile the Just (only this) as "Jeu-St" (think a frensh "-e").

PS: I'm not a native speaker, so I may be entirelly wrong. But it has been around 20+ years that I speak English, 11 of the quite fluently...

[KillianHawkeye]

The only time I hear people say "juss" is if they've had a few.

Chicago, here. Likewise, I've only heard this pronunciation when someone is slurring their speech (whether due to intoxication or for informal/stylistic purposes).

[Domino Quartz]

I'm from New Zealand, and most of the time I pronounce the adjective and the adverb in the exact same way. The times when I pronounce it differently usually happen because of differences in emphasis. Occasionally, I'll pronounce the adverb without much emphasis, so it ends up being pronounced like "j'st." This almost never happens with the adjective.

[Shirow]

I'm used to hearing both of them on TV. But I wasn't aware it was a Southern US dialectal thing. Nice.
I would use /d͡ʒʌst/ when I am stressing the word and /d͡ʒʌs/ when I am not.
Wikitionary has some variants, too? I am guessing those evolved from the Southern US dialect pronunciation.
(Though I couldn't find anything academic on it in a quick search on Google Scholar.)


just
Alternative forms
jes
jes'
jest
Pronunciation
(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /d͡ʒʌst/

[ForzaFiori]

Yet another southerner here (from upstate SC), and I pronounce them both the same - with a T. I could see slurring through the T if I was tipsy or talking quickly, or putting more emphasis on the T if the word as a whole is being emphasized, but if that was the case, I'd probably do it regardless of how the word is being used.

[Hariman]

Personally, I use just as in "Justice" for matters related to justice, and both pronunciations for every day use, though the closer to "jest" pronunciation is used less for me.

In my head, I use the "justice" type for for "just a choice of which day is taco day" when thinking bout this.

[jayem]

It occurs to me that we Brits are being forgetful! The late great Tommy Cooper, a comedian and magician had as his catchphrase "Just like that".
In recordings of Tommy you can (just) hear the "t" in "Just", but it's close enough to the "Juss" pronunciation that I would expect people used to that to have no issues understanding that word. Most people I have heard do Tommy Cooper impressions exaggerate this to "Juss like that"...

Jus' William does the same I think (and jussed), but it was written so (even if I recall correctly) Richmal was clearly treating it as a peculiarity.
Possibly Para-Handy (and he almost certainly uses lawful just). [ETA "chust"]

So I think it is an British variant too, but unlike Scone, the hard t is as far as I know accepted the real one (i.e. when it's not in a sentence) and the two words just/just homophonic.

[veti]

I've never really thought about it before, but there is a slight difference in how I say them. (Southern British accent here.)

"Just" as in "justice" is pronounced clearly and usually carries the stress of a phrase or the word that contains it. So it's unmistakably "just", not "jest" or "jist".

But "just" as in "mere" is usually a much less weighty word, and as such the vowel sound tends to shrivel into a schwa - if it were played to an uninformed listener, without context, it might be heard as some other vowel.

[Grey Watcher]

Grew up in Massachusetts and now live in New York, and have always known them to be pronounced exactly the same.

I do have a good friend from Georgia who has a rather strong accent. I don't think I've ever noticed him pronounce them differently, but it might just (heh) be similar enough to have escaped my notice.

[Jay R]

The adjective from "justice" is pronounced pretty much the same everywhere I've heard it.

But the synonym of "only" is not always pronounced the same, even by a single individual.

Here in Dallas, and in its suburbs, many people say "jus'" when the next word starts with a consonant. In the smaller towns nearby, "jus'" becomes more common. But I suspect that if you asked them, they would claim that they were saying "just". That's jus' the way a drawl works. They always pronounce the "t" in a phrase like "just in time" or "just a second".

One character in Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo often said, "Jes' fine." This strip was set in the Okeefenokee swamp.

[dps]

Chicago, here. Likewise, I've only heard this pronunciation when someone is slurring their speech (whether due to intoxication or for informal/stylistic purposes).

Same here. Born and raised in West Virginia, have lived in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and now Indiana.