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)