Re: OT: English and front rounded vowels

Mr Veoler skrev:
 > Mark J. Reed wrote:
 >> It came up because I have a Swedish coworker named Skold,
 >> and I just found out that it's really Sköld /j\2ld/ (not
 >> sure about the CXS for the sje-sound) - the Swedish word
 >> for "shield".
 >
 > As for my 'lect, I pronounce the initial consonant in
 > "sköld" as [x].

Don't all sensible people? ;-)

But seriously the 'sj-sound' is the most variable of all
Swedish phonemes. I think most people nowadays have [X] --
the Swedish sound is much backer and raspier than Russian
[x] -- but a large minority have [S] or [s`] and thus merger
with /rs/ -- to them _försköna_ 'beautify' and _försöka_
'attempt' are an /n/--/k/ minimal pair! --, while some have
[XS)] aka [x\], the radio announcers' pronunciation of
choice, and still others have [x\p\)] with *three*
obstructions of the vocal tract, which was my father's
pronunciation, and some have [X_w] as I do.

I'd still recommend English speakers to use their /S/ for
the 'sj-sound' and their /tS/ for the 'tj-sound'. While
clearly a foreign accent (except to Finland-Swedes) it
precludes misunderstanding.

Where are you from, BTW?


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
   à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
   ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
   c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)

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