Re: Part 2 Why my con langs SUCK!!!

Chris Bates wrote:
> Well, RP of course lol. I'm joking... I'm not sure, but I think a
> compromise could be reached... people who speak non-rhotic dialects of
> english will still know how to pronounce a world if we keep on sticking
> rs where some people pronounce them,
Which is exactly what written English does.  I've suggested in that past
that the _underlying_ phonology of _all_ Engl. dialects (the standard-ish
one, at any rate) does have /r/ in all the positions where it is written.
Intervocalic and final-prevocalic /r/ are almost always retained.
Pre-consonantal /r/ is the problem:  but for each dialect it is predictable
whether it is realized as 1. a rhotic-- 2. a schwa-like offglide-- 3.
various other off-glides (e.g. [j]-like in the "bird=boyd" dialects)-- 4.
length and (4a) sometimes change of vowel quality (5. have I missed
anything?).

If Engl. were not a written language, then at least comparison of all the
dialects would point to the reconstruction of pre-cons. /r/ in
"Common-English"

>Don't
> know which dialect has the most vowel sounds).
Judging what Tristan and Adrian's descriptions, my vote would be:
Australian (which does 4 & 4a above).

Replies