Re: OT: YAEPT: English low vowels (was briefly: Re: Y/N variants (< OT: English a...

Yeah.  Which is why cartoons often insert a cuckoo clock sound effect
when someone is supposed to be acting crazy.  And over here there's a
brand of breakfast cereal called "Cocoa Puffs" whose mascot is a
cuckoo named Sonny whose slogan is "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!"



On 12/15/07, T. A. McLeay <conlang@...> wrote:
> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > That word for "crazy" is, in fact, the same word: "cuckoo".
> > Colloquial meaning, knowledge of which helps in the appreciation of
> > titles like "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".  I've never heard of
> > the two meanings having distinct pronunciations before.
>
> Oh, I never realised that...
>
> > It probably is significant that FOOT and GOOSE differ in quality as
> > well as length around here.  "Cuckoo" as /kuku:/ in fact exactly
> > matches my pronunciation.  But that's not FOOT-GOOSE, which would be
> > /kUku:/.
>
> They differ in quality as well as length here, too. I'm using u\ as CXS
> for IPA ʉ i.e. the high central rounded vowel. In reality, the AusE
> value lies somewhere in front of central. But the short vowel is back.
> (It's normally written as U (ʊ) and that is what I meant to write, but
> it's actually closer to [u] so my transcription wasn't wrong.)
>
> --
> Tristan.
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>