Re: CHAT: Phonemic status of English interdentals

Hello,

> > Not unlike Moliere's Jourdin, heh :-)
>
> Well, if he was amazed, it was because he was being bamboozled:
> nobody speaks *prose*, unless by prose we mean merely not-verse.
> "Speaking like a book" is derogatory precisely because people don't
> actually talk that way.
My impression was exactly that he was amazed at the applicabiity of this
bookish distinction to everyday speech; if I remember antyhing of the
text, prose is defined exactly as non-verse.

Anyway, his reaction towards this discovery was mirrored by some of my
fellow stduents when they learned that one pronounced _m_ by using their
nose and keeping their lips compressed (well, at least this revelation
didn't come at our phonetics class - the knowledge fo Russian phonetics
at this level is part of the entry exam programme)

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas
                 --Scottish proverb