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Re: CHAT: Phonemic status of English interdentals

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Thursday, October 10, 2002, 15:42
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. ("American English is essentially Hiberno-English as pronounced by German refugees from Bismarck's Prussia.")
> 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?) in any but the most formal contexts. "Fellow traveler" is [fElou tr&v@l@r`] because it is a formal political expression, but "Are any of the fellows here yet?" would be [fEl@z]. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan <jcowan@...> 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)

Replies

Tim May <butsuri@...>
Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...>