Re: OT: English and schizophrenia

Muke Tever wrote:

> From: "Luís Henrique" <luisb@...>
> >One other cause of ortographic chaos in English is its vowel system, with
> >the (for non-English native speakers) weird opposition between lax and
> >tense. AFAIK, none of the other widely spoken languages, or any other
> >European language makes this opposition. Moreover, lax vowels tend to seem
> >all the same schwa to non-English speakers (and this is responsible for the
> >general feeling that "English is essentially [insert your choice language]
> >spoken while chewing a very hot potatoe").
>
> Those vowels tend to sound like all the same schwa to _native_ English
> speakers too, which is why you so often see things like <definately> instead
> of <definitely>, or <seperate> instead of <separate>.
Those incidentally *are* schwas.  English has a regular rule of phonological
reduction in unstressed syllables.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
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