Re: More Ere:tas: The fable of the North Wind and the Sun

In a message dated 10/31/01 11:04:14 PM, and_yo@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

<< (much
more so than for instance [o] and [O]) >>

    These two vowels are so different that one may as well be an obstruent.
I cannot imagine how anyone could possibly mix these two up, whereas mixing
up [e] and [E] doesn't seem unreasonable to me.  I'm beginning to think it's
just my ears...

<<Speaking of 'a's, is there any (real-world) language that have a phonemic
contrast between [A] and [a]?>>

    My historical linguistics professor, who lived in Texas, said they don't
always pronounce the /aj/ diphthong as [a], but when they do, there's, for
example, [wat] for "white" and [wAt] for "watt", I'd imagine.  For those that
no longer have [O] in Texas, I'd guess the same would be true for "bright"
and "brought"; "write/right/rite" and "wrought/rot"; "(k)night" and "not".

-David

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