Re: USAGE: [YAEPT] (was Re: "To whom")

Mark wrote:
> #1 wrote:
> > How do you pronounce the word "cache"? He pronounces /k&_cSe­"/ but I'd
> > probably pronounce it /k6"tS@/
>
> IMD the word "cache" sounds just like the word "cash": /k&S/.
> [...] I've also never heard anyone pronounce the -e, so the fact
> that several others report doing so is interesting.
There are two words in use here:  <cache> /k&S/ meaning 'a place
to deposit or hide something', and <cachet> /k&Se/ meaning
'social prestige' or some such.  I think those who report the latter
pronunciation with the former spelling are misspelling it.

====================================
Tristan wrote:
> Mark wrote:
> > People often write what they hear without analyzing it, and so
> > write "could of" instead of "could've" or "could have".
>
> That can't be the reason; IMD 'of' is /Ov/ when stressed, but
> 'could of' still appears. The simple reason is that 've and of
> are pronounced the same (when the latter is unstressed. Unless
> perhaps your dialect actually doesn't allow unstressed 'of'?
> That'd be odd...
This is in fact the case for every American dialect that I know:
always [@v], never [Ov] nor [Av].  And since Americans
constitute more than half the total number of native speakers
in the world, it is only natural that their errors would
statistically be seen most frequently.

> I don't know that the glottal stop is phonemic (and I've heard evidence
> that the phoneme for US [4] is actually /t/, so 'meddle' and 'mettle'
> are both homophones as (what I suppose is) /mEtl=/, contrary to
> intuition).
[?] isn't phonemic; he just wasn't being careful in his notation.
As for [4], there's overlapping distribution of two phonemes:
/d/ and /t/ both have an allophone [4] intervocalically, and
contrast in other environments.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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