Re: OT: Definitely Not YAEPT: English phoneme inventory?
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, July 17, 2003, 19:27 |
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On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 08:09:05PM +0100, Ian Spackman wrote:
> >Mostly true. But in some speakers, including myself, there are a few
> >words that don't follow the pattern. For example, I use [VI] in
> >"fire", where it is not followed by a voiceless consonant. However, I
> >use [aI] in "wire" and most or all other "-ire" words, so "fire" and
> >"wire" etc. don't rhyme in my speech. I've also observed informally
> >that Canadians who use [VI] in "fire" can hear the difference between
> >[VI] and [aI] fairly easily, while those who use [aI] in "fire" usually
> >can't ear the difference.
>
> I didn't know that it was phonemic for anyone. Interesting, but perhaps
> not surprising.
Hearing a distinction doesn't make it phonemic. Show me a minimal pair. :)
-Mark
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