Re: A question on palatalization.

Christophe Grandsire wrote:

>En réponse à Tristan <kesuari@...>:
>
>
>
>>However, /nj/ remains as /nj/ (in words like 'news'). Is /nj/ less
>>likely to change? (Though come to think of it, the /n/ in 'new' is
>>pronounced further back than the /n/ in 'noon' or 'need'.)
>>
>>
>So maybe your /n/ in 'new' is properly palatal [J] instead of being palatalised
>[n_j]. That would explain why it doesn't change while your other palatalised
>consonants change, and why you feel that it's pronounced further back than the
>proper /n/ of 'noon'.
>
If anything, it's probably more like [Jj]. It only needs a tiny little
[j], but if there's absolutely none, [Ju:] sounds American. I wouldn't
go so far as suggesting that [J] was phonemic for me (though my speech
is generally slightly conservative in comparison to my peers; I'm more
likely to pronounce -ing as /IN/ than /@n/, the reverse is true for my
peers, for example).

>>But don't let that put you off. Unless I'm mistaken, English has had
>>/dZ/ for some time (in words like 'bridge' < _bricg_, though I think
>>the
>>OE <cg> was a voiced palatal stop originally?) and took some time to
>>develop /Z/.*
>>
>>
>But at the same time didn't English have already /tS/ and /S/? In this case,
>even in the absence of /Z/, /dZ/ is not properly solitary. It has /tS/ to keep
>it company ;))) . But as somebody pointed out, there's at least one example of
>a language with /tS/ without /S/, /Z/ or /dZ/ (at least phonemically):
>Castillan Spanish.
>
Fair enough then. Thansk for the clarification.

>Well, I answered the point about Old English. In that case, /dZ/ is not really
>orphan. As for the vowel inventory, on the other hand, I heartily agree with
>you. But it's not for nothing that the English vowel inventory is considered
>exceptional ;))) .
>
>
So what other examples of English's vowels' oddities are there? I
realise it's hard/impossible to generalise, but this is probably because
of the oddities. Speak of dialects you know! :)

Tristan.

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