Re: OT: Intergermansk - Traveller's Phrasebook

Andreas wrote:
> Gary wrote:
> > you = ee-oo. That's a vowel sound in my reality.
>
> You spell it with a hyphen and still insists it's *one* sound?
> That's fairly original.  I don't doubt you if you say you perceive
> "you" as consisting of a unitary sound. But saying that "thank" is
> followed by a vowel in "thank you" is confusing for us who perceive
> it as a CV syllable.
Yeah, he's being inconsistent in this.  [ju] certainly isn't one
vowel, but in some English-prime "thank" could be followed by a
vowel if "you" is underlyingly /iu/.  But speaking as a native
English speaker and a linguist, I *really* doubt this is the case,
that in his dialect [j] and [i] are in totally complementary
distribution.  Afterall, surely he doesn't pronounce the name
<Ian> as [jn=] or [ijn=], rather than [in=]?

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Pascal wrote:
> Gary wrote:
> > The English phrase "thank you" already has a vowel
> > sound after the "k", namely the "you" sound.
>
> No, actually it has *not*. In Standard English pronunciation,
> "y" at the beginning of a word is *always* pronunced like the
> consonant [j].
You're correct in correcting him here, but it actually isn't the
case that underlying /j/ always surfaces as [j].  It often forces
palatalization when "you" cliticizes to the preceding word:
"did you" becoming [dIdZ@], in every English dialect of which
I'm aware.

> The lazy American speech habits might even slur "tank du"
> into "tanku" or something =/ You never know...
So, are all Germanophones as gratuitously rude and uncouth as you,
or are you unique? You're not the first I've had unpleasant
experiences with, I must say...

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Pascal also wrote:
> Tim May wrote:
> > But really Gary, this is most strange. Do you pronounce "you"
> > as one syllable or two? And how do you pronounce "year"?
>
> I'll take a stab at how Gary might pronounce it: year = ee-aa
I rather doubt that. Gary said he's a Midwesterner, IIRC, and
except in a few redoubts in major cities like Chicago, nonrhotic
dialects are entirely absent.  He would transcribe it "ee-eer".

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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