Re: Germans have no /w/ etc.

Carsten Becker wrote:

> LOL, I had a classmade who pronounced [T] and [D] even as [f] and [v]!
> (What an interesting sound change ;))

Perfectly normal. The Russians used to have a letter called fita which
the used IIUC for Greek theta. Brits do it all the time, too, as do some
Australians (but it's much rarer here then there).

> Later, he switched to [s] and [z],
> as many Germans (mis)pronounce it. He wasn't very good at languages,
> anyway, which supports my thesis. Also, it's a shame for my English
> teacher that she isn't able to distinguish /T/ from /s/. How shall the
> English n00bs in the 5th grade classes where she teaches English learn
> how to properly pronounce tee-aidges?
tee-haiches :P (I think I'm missing the justification for the -dg- though?)

> As for me, when speaking fast or being excited because of being called
> up, I also mix up [v] and [w]. Voiced |-s| at the end of words is
> difficult though, so I mostly don't pronounce it properly. But [T] and
> [D] have never been a problem for me. [5] was a bit strange at the
> beginning, too, especially for my little brother who nearly pronounced
> it like swallowing his tongue ;). I'm not rhotic either. My
> pronounciation is mostly British English with some Americanisms I guess
> (e.g. [dE:ns] instead of the more seldom heard [da:ns]) and a German
> accent shining through.
Non-rhotic plus /&:/ in 'dance' is a perfectly valid (and indeed the
most common) Australian pronunciation :) (The British lengthened /a:/
before n only survived regularly in 'aunt' (vs ant /&:nt/) and 'can't'.
(Some people do say things like 'Frahnce' and 'Lahnce' though.) But most
of the rest remained in tact, so /gla:s/.)

--
Tristan.