Re: half voiced (was: Digest Deux)

In a message dated 11/4/01 5:24:10 PM, anstouh@YAHOO.COM.AU writes:

<< So does this kind of stuff relate to why children say 'basketti' for
'spaghetti'? (Not so much the metathesis but more the p>b and g>k changes.) >>

    Well, you take any English word starting with /g/ and put an [s] in front
of it and that /g/ will miraculously turn into a [k].  So, the /g/>[k] change
is natural.  The /b/ is probably compensation, though I've often heard /p/
(that is [p_h]).

<<By this you mean /D/ (as in 'the')? Are you sure? I can draw it out about
as easily as I can /z/, and a lot easilier than /d/ (which I actually can't
draw out at all; it becomes /dz:/.>>

    Oh yes, I'm very sure.  There's nothing saying that you CAN'T make the
[D] sound; it's just that it's realized most of the time as a dental [d].

<<This point I think doesn't stand for antipoedian English. In Australia /&/
is higher than an American one, and our good friends from Kiwiland and
South Africa just raise all the short front vowels (except /I/ which is
moved to [@] on the grounds of [I] being as high as a lax vowel will want
to go, I imagine).>>

    Oh, my goodness, it certainly does not!  Oops!  I was thinking of
American English.  Sorry!  My mistake.

-David