Re: OT: Two countries separated by a common language

On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 12:44:19PM +1000, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> Well, my [e] is no doubt the equivalent of your [E] for most intents and
> purposes.
Could be.  The sound [e] only shows up in my English idiolect as
part of a "long a" diphthong - [e:] or [eI].  Just for reference:

        mat     [m&t]
        mate    [meIt], [me:t], or [mejt]
        met     [mEt]
        mite    [mAIt]
        mitt    [mIt]
        moot    [mut]
        mote    [moUt]
        mutt    [mVt]
        not     [nAt]
        put     [pUt]

> Americans sound like (to me) they're using [&] as their
> short e or [E] as their short a, but I've never got confused by it.
Hm.  I would definitely hear [met] as "mate" rather than "met".

> >On a slightly related note, my wife mocks me because I pronounce
> >"measure" as ["meiZ@`r\]
> If I tried saying [meiZ@], people would tell me it's not pronounced with
> a long 'e' :) (Long a is [&i], long e is somewhere on the continuum
> [ij]~[Ii]~[@\i]~[@i] and so when in the context of an Australian accent
> [ei] sound most like [@\i].
Oh, dear.  However do you communicate with non-Aussies? :)  But as you
said, at least you do seem to be on the way to undoing part of the Great
Vowel Shift. :)

-Mark