Re: phonology of borrowed words

bnathyuw wrote, quoting myself:

> > Also, it was interesting that the pronunciation of some foreign words
> > has become _more_ authentic over time. For example, younger members of
> > the class consistently pronounced the final syllable of "reservoir"
> > [vwa], while only the very oldest members chose [vo:].
>
> so some people pronounce it ( attempting to do an
> australian accent ) ['r\Iz@vo:] ? here it's definitely
> ['r\Ez@vwA:]
I don't understand why you've denoted the first vowel as [I]: it may
be higher than your /E/ but not *that* much higher! The typical
Australian /e/ is, shall we say, maybe one quarter of the way along
the line from cardinal [e] to cardinal [E]. Also, isn't the most
common realisation of /r/ in the English speaking world, and the
_only_ common realisation in Australia, actually x-sampa [H] for
some insane reason? I'm going by descriptions on IPA charts.

The contrast in question is ['Hez@vo:] versus ['Hez@vwa:], the former
favoured by older people (esp. b. 1950's) according to our sample.

Personally, I'm happy with either ... but interestingly the two
pronunciations don't conjour the same image. Saying ['Hez@vwa:]
brings to mind a vivid image of a large-scale reservoir with huge
concrete walls, whereas ['Hez@vo:] fails to do the same: if anything
it makes me think of a /small/ reservoir. However, I'd probably use
['Hez@vo:] when talking about a metaphorical reservoir, e.g. "a
reservoir of information". Don't ask me why, but my brain processes
the two pronunciations differently.

> incidentally, on the topic of doing an australian
> accent, i frequently get mistaken for an australian. i
> think it's something to do with the fact i realise
> /EI/ as [&I]. and, in eg the word 'australia', where
> the diphthong follows an [r\], [VI]. the oddest thing
> is being told i'm australian by an australian . . .
> surely they should be able to tell my accent's not
> right !
My /&I/ is definitely not affected by a preceding /r/.

Adrian.

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