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THEORY: phonemics (was: RE: [CONLANG] Optimum

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 28, 2002, 16:43
And Rosta scripsit:

> > >But that still leaves us with > > >allophonic variation that is not conditioned positionally, which > > >is why I gave the example of English /t/ in foot-internal > > >intervocalic position, which can, inter alia, be [t] or tap [D].
On reflection, I don't understand this one at all. For me, [t] vs flap is completely positional, and I thought the dialects for which this is not so don't have flap at all.
> I deliberately chose the [t]/[D] allophony because it can't be > defined by underspecification: whereas the final /p/ allophony can be > defined by not specifying relase or aspiration, the intervocalic /t/ > allophony can be defined only extensionally, as the list {[t], [D]}.
They are both alveolars, though, and the idea of a category that unites stop and flap (which can be thought of as a stop of minimal length) is not absurd. -- John Cowan <jcowan@...> http://www.reutershealth.com I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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And Rosta <a-rosta@...>