(CHAT) Re: English syllable structure

And Rosta wrote:
>Because, relatively speaking, there is. Accent differences within the
>USA are relatively trivial when compared to Accent differences within
>Britain. Similarly, differences among Southern Hemisphere English and
>South Eastern England are comparatively trivial. In addition, "American
>English pronunciation" is normally understood to mean the accent
>called "General American", just as "British English pronunciation" is
>normally understood to mean RP. Those are the hegemonic accents within
>the respective countries.

An eminentily sensible comment.  We should all read, mark, learn and
inwardly digest it.

As an aside-- you wrote earlier:

> In English English _Nicaragua_ and _jaguar_ rhyme in /&gju:@/.
> /nIk@'r&gw@/ or (god help us!) /nIk@'rA:gw@/ would sound insufferably
pretentious...

Some segments of the US population regard an English (RP) accent as
insufferably pretentious, effete if not effeminate, condescending etc. etc.
(at least, not ignorant; that's what other furrin accents are).  Less so now
than in the past, but...  Frankly, I've never quite understood this.

That view even extended (in the provincial midwest where I grew up) to the
East Coast US accent, characterized by [t@mAto] not [t@meito].  At least one
of the reasons FDR was viewed so askance.  Otherwise, our exposure to
non-local accents was limited to the movies we saw about life in NYC, where
the nice people spoken General American, the cabbies spoke Brooklynese, and
the wealthy fancy-pants said tomAto and dropped their r's.  I recall one
movie where an art-dealer or museum-curator type referred to a [vA:z] (vase
[veis])-- it brought down the house.