Re: USAGE: [a] vs [A]

On Sat, 2003-06-14 at 10:52, Doug Dee wrote:
> I recall reading somewhere that in most languages with roughly triangular
> vowel systems, like /i e a o u/ and /i e E a O o u/, the /a/ is generally about
> halfway between IPA [a] and IPA [A] , since vowels tend to be very roughly
> evenly spaced, other things equal. (It would not be efficient to have the lone low
> vowel crammed into the front with an unused gap in back or vice versa.)
>
> Not being very expert at phonology, I can't shed further light on this claim.
Well, it does match Australian English (or my dialect thereof). (So I
write it phonemically as /a/ / /a:/ but phonetically as [6]/[6:].)
Except that we also have a vowel about halfway in between [2] and [8],
perhaps closer to [8], and a dipthong starting from [u\], and the
diphthong /ai/ is slightly backer then its monophthong equivalents
(incl. in words like /wa:l/ vs /wai@l/, 'while'). The vowels I
transliterate as /&/ / /&:/ and /O/ / /O:/ are of about equal height
--
Tristan.