Re: CHAT: Phonemic status of English interdentals

On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 11:42:01 -0400
John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:

> Stephen Mulraney scripsit:
> > A week ago a guy I met was getting snotty with me when
> > he (1) heard me speak & (2) heard I was a mathematician (worse, a
> > [maT@m&tISn=], not a [mat_t@m&tISn=]),
> It's the a-vowels I find bizarre:  [m&T@m@"tiSn=] is what I say.
Hmm... The X-SAMPA chart I usually refer to has, now that I look at
it carefully, [&] marked for both the rounded form of [a] and for the
unrounded front vowel between [E] and [a] ([æ] in other words). The
annotation for that second vowel is "& or {". The long and the short
of this is that when I wrote [&] I meant the sound [{]: [maT@m{tISn=].
Better? Perhaps [a] would be better for that vowel, but it seems a bit
of a step beyond. Anyhow, [@] for the second "a" is not what's said.

> ("American English is essentially Hiberno-English as pronounced by German
> refugees from Bismarck's Prussia.")
I still can't get my ears around that one. I agree with the Irish part,
but the German bit ... Mayhap I should close my eyes and think of
Henry Kissenger. (Which reminds me of the Monty Python song: "O Henry
Kissen[dZE:], oh how I'm missing y[E:] ... you've got nicer legs than
Hitler and bigger tits than Cher..." etc., etc.)

> > But [fElr&] is such a local word that it is entirely wrong to spell it
> > "fellow". The local dialect written form is "fella".
> I can hardly imagine saying anything but [fEl@]
> (did you really mean [r&] > there?)
No. :-).  [fElE:], or perhaps [fEl{E]. The Dublin accent I'm describing has
this impressive tendence to substitute a single vowel for a di- tri-
or n- phthong almost anywhere, with the resulting complex fairly well
determined by the word. This can be used for emphasis, social-rank
signals, or just to give time to think ;)


>         You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
>         You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
>                 Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)
A great quote. FW_read_prob++;

--
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he  Stephen Mulraney
were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning
sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?      <ataltane
  -- Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)                at oceanfree.net>

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