Re: CHAT: Phonemic status of English interdentals

--- David Starner <starner@...> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 07, 2002 at 07:00:51PM -0700, Josh
> Brandt-Young wrote:
> > I was thinking about our discussion some time ago
> of whether [T] and [D]
> > should be considered separate phonemes in English,
> citing "minimal pairs"
> > and whatnot, and decided to do a test on my
> (non-linguistically-savvy)
> > girlfriend to see what I could see.
>
> What dialect/accent do you and her speak? I would
> think the answer
> depends a lot on what dialect of English you're
> talking about.
It may be because I'm more linguistically aware, but
reading that story with thorns and edhs reversed
sounds funny; but doesn't seem to affect
understandability so much.

I had a similar experience recently, trying to explain
the difference between thorn and edh to a lady who's
studying Old Norse. Just giving bare examples like
"thin" and "then" didn't work. Explaining the "buzzy
throat" (voiced) v. "no buzz" (voiceless) didn't work.
After a while she was able to sort it out herself.

Padraic.



=====
raps il tenós mathin la ngouerma;
     mays comez le nces il luchets le secund.

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More
http://faith.yahoo.com