Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

John Cowan wrote:
>
> Robert Hailman scripsit:
>
> > "Canadian English" again. It's all nonsense, I say. There is no one
> > "Canadian" English, as much as there isn't one "American" English, or as
> > much as every person in Britain doesn't speak RP. I speak English very
> > differently from someone out East, or someone in the praries. So the
> > phrase "Canadian English" really does offend my sensibilities. Just a
> > pet peeve of mine.
>
> Sorry, no intention to offend.  ("There are two kinds of Yanks,
> those who don't know anything about Canada, and those who don't care.")
You didn't offend *me*, you offended my sensibilities. A rather fitting
quote that one there, I'd say. True, too. ;-)

> There isn't just one American English, but in contrast with any
> non-North-American dialect there are plenty of common factors --
> in lexis, in phonology, even in grammar.  Canadian dialects
> differ in even more subtle ways: there is nothing as different
> as the Northern/Midlands/Southern divide, e.g.
Well, the English spoken in the Maritime provinces is awfully different
from mine in Toronto, which in turn is rather different from... aw,
heck. You're right, the dialectical differences aren't as great as those
in American dialects, but they are very real and in some cases rather
significant.

> > I have [O] in "pot", "lot", and "father", [...]
>
> Hmm, very surprising.  I have never heard anything in "father" but [A] and [a].
Well, this is assuming that the sounds in the IPA Help program are
right.

Actually, with the realization that I have [O] in "father", (actually,
it may not be [O] - but it's the same vowel as in "pot" and "lot", which
seems a whole lot like [O] to me) it's kind of put everything askew. I
had always assumed I had [A], because I was told that's what English
had. Now it's beginning to seem to me like I have no real distinction
between [A] and [a], actually.

So lets se - for me, phonemic /A/ is [O], phonemic /@/ (/2/?) is [V],
and phonemic [a] might actually be [A]. And I used to think my ideolect
had nothing interesting about it.

--
Robet

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