Re: Lenition

On Tuesday, June 25, 2002, at 11:08 , John Cowan wrote:

> Ray Brown scripsit:
>
>> Maybe.   But as American English seems to voice all intervocalic
>> plosives,
>
> Eh?  We still know the difference between ripping and ribbing, or
> between locking and logging!  It's only the /t/ vs. /d/ distinction
> that's neutralized by making them into a voiced alveolar flap.
I guess the intervocalic allophones of /k/ and /p/ are partially voiced
whereas /b/ and /d/ get full voicing.  You may be able to detect the
difference
'cos you've been brought up with it.  Indeed, we Rightpondians can normally
tell the difference when watching Mercan films, cartoons etc from the
context.
But when some unknown or unusual word occurs with one of these
intervocalically,
then it's not so easy.

I remember many years ago in some cartoon series - I don't recall which it
was now - there was a catch phrase and I was never sure whether it was
"Heavens to Murgatroid" or "Heavens to Murkatroid" (the spelling of
murgatroid ~ murkatroid is probably wrong - one must be).

I eagerly await enlightenment on the correct phrase, the cartoon & the
character who habitually said it   :-)

Ray.