Re: USAGE: ei and ej (was: Front vowel tensing)

At 2:23 pm +1000 3/7/01, tristan alexander mcleay wrote:
>Dan Jones wrote:
>
>>tristan alexander mcleay wrote:
[snip]

>>>And, IME (experience), the brits use /eI/ for 'pay', unless they are
>>>northern and use [e:].
>>>
>>
>>I don't know why but the phrase "unless they are northern" made me giggle.
>>You seem to imply that all non-RP dialects are "northern".
That's not how I read Tristan. I assumed that as Tristan lived on almost
the opposite side globe to me, his experience of Brit English would be
limited in much the same way as my experience of Aussie English.  I read as
Tristan knowing that 'standard Brit' (as it's assumed outside of Britain)
is [eI], but that he had had experience of people from the north of Britain
who use [e:] - and that is correct.

Much of northern England and most (all?) varieties of Scots use [e:]; it's
true that is also used in much of Wales also.  But other non-RP dialects
certainly don't - pronunciations such as [e@] and [I@] occur.

>>Also, I would
>>think of /pe:/ as much more of a posh pronunciation than my /p&@j/.
Now I can giggle.  Snobbish RP-speakers most certainly don't consider it
'posh', and most of those Brits who use [e:] are likely to either amused or
offended at being considered posh.

>What I say and what I mean don't always correspond. What I meant was
>they used a diphthong (or triphthong (or quadrophthong?)), unless
>they're northern (I think. Or something.), when its a monophthong.
About right, except you forget the Welsh [e:]  ;)

[snip]
>
>Maybe I should just keep my mouth closed. Then I can't say something
>unclear.
Nah - don't be put off.  I've been misunderstood often enough.

Ray.

BTW, tho triphthongs are not uncommon, I think tetraphthongs do not occur.
I seem to remember there was a short-lived thread on this not so long ago.


=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================