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

En réponse à Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:

>
> Speaking of 'a's, is there any (real-world) language that have a
> phonemic
> contrast between [A] and [a]? To  my ears, they sound very different
> (much
> more so than for instance [o] and [O]).
>
French did until one generation ago. I remember when I was a child I used to
make the difference in my speech. Now I still can hear the difference but I
don't do it anymore. Too bad, it was practical to differentiate some words
(eg. 'pattes' /pat/: legs - of animal - vs. 'pâtes' /pAt/: pasta). I remember I
was taught at school that those two a's were different. And knowing the French
system of education, children of today are probably still taught there is a
difference, and must be, rightly, wondering what the difference is :)) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.