Re: Blah blah blah natlangs

Justin Mansfield wrote:

> > Pronouncing "yeah" with an [&] is new to me.
> >
> > [je@] and [je:] are both common.
> >
> > [jE@] and [jE:] also believable. Reference points on the
> > [e]->[E]->[&]->[a] continuum can be hard to pin down, and
> > I don't think my dialect has [E] so  I have difficulty distinguishing it.
>
>     My idiolect definitely has [j{] (or [j&] depending on your favored
> transcription system), but the actual phonetic realization might be
> something else, just because speakers of other dialects usually insist
> that my /{/ is not [{]. If this is so, I don't know what exactly it is.
I usually have [j{]; some of my friends, however, use [jE] -- but,
interestingly, seem sometimes to epenthesize a glottal stop:  [jE?].
Before nasals, my /{/ is raised significantly, to the extent that it can
be confused for [E].  Is that what you're thinking about?

> It's definitely not a diphthong, however, even in "yeah."
>
Depends on the register for me, and the circumstance of speech.
[j{@:] for me might indicate that someone thinks the answer is
obvious, or is waiting for further information.

>  By the way, blah blah blah is occasionally pronounced bla bla bla
> with the same lax sound ending a word, no?
Not in my experience, no.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

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