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Re: OT: Intergermansk - Traveller's Phrasebook

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Saturday, February 5, 2005, 20:06
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=]? ---------------------------------------- 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... ------------------------------------------ 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". ========================================================================= 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

Replies

Tristan McLeay <conlang@...>
Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>