[y] in English (was: David P's "month")

Christophe Grandsire a écrit:
>>>
[y] is the French "u" of "lune", that English-speaking people do tend to
approximate as [ju], but that's a mistake due to the lack of this sound in
their language. [ju] would be /ju/ or /u/ in English, depending whether you
consider it an allophone of /u/ or not.
<<<

Well, I -

but then Matthew Bladen wrote:
>>>
It [ [y] ], or something like it, is also emerging in some accents in
Britain. I noticed it quite a lot among students in Oxford. I don't
know why (possibly just unfamiliarity) but I don't find it
appealing. I might have to make it feature in the history of my
conlangs just so I can kill it off... ;)
<<<

Erp?!  I was just about to say that there are certainly accents of English
(some Scottish accents for example) that use [y] routinely - but I've been
neatly upstaged, it seems!  I myself was a student at Oxford between 1994
and 2000, and I must say I never noticed [y] creeping into my speech, though
I'm willing to believe I might have missed it in others.  Which phoneme did
you hear it used for, Matthew, and in which group/subculture of students?

Jonathan.

'O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages...'
W. H. Auden, 'Hymn to St. Cecilia'

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