Re: OT: Phonetics (IPA)

Nikhil Sinha scripsit:

> > Since you can readily distinguish [t] and [t_h], you will be better
> > understood if you consistently use [t_h] for /t/ except after [s],
> > where [t] is the right thing.
>
> I understand what you say. But, if I start doing that I will not be
> understood in my own country. But, still when I speak to foreigners, I'll do
> that. Its not that I cannot speak your way, its that I have got into the
> habbit of speaking my (Indian) way.
Yes, I should have said "better understood by people who speak other
kinds of English".  Indian English, after all, is an autonomous dialect
of English with its own rules, just as much so as American or English or
Scottish or Irish or Australian English; by contrast, there is no
specific German or French or Swedish English, merely characteristic
"foreign accents".

In at least some kinds of Irish English, /t/ and /d/ are pronounced
alveolar, whereas /T/ and /D/ are pronounced as dental stops.  This
can make "thirty" sound like "dirty" to speakers of other dialects.

--
LEAR: Dost thou call me fool, boy?      John Cowan
FOOL: All thy other titles              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
             thou hast given away:      jcowan@reutershealth.com
      That thou wast born with.         http://www.reutershealth.com

Reply