USAGE: [CONLANG] A discourse on Phonemics (was:

And Rosta scripsit:
>
> John Cowan:
> > And Rosta scripsit:
> >
> > > I've been trying to stay out of these accents of English threads -- too
> > > addictive -- but here I shall lapse and point out that AusE has low
> > > back vowels in _hot_ and _gone_, [hQt] and, for some speakers, at
> > > least (as previously discussed on this list) [gQ:n].
> >
> > But anomalously so, like /RQT/ for "wrath".  For me, /Q/ is one of the most
> > reliable markers of Not-My-Accent.
My error here: I should have been using square brackets, not slashes.

> I don't understand. Even if AusE has /Q/ in "wrath", it still has a low
> back vowel phoneme, and anyway, where is the anomaly.
Actually my point was that the phone [Q] appears in only a few words
in AusE, so it is still fair to say (phonemic analysis aside) that
it has no low back vowel phones.

> As for /rQT/, that's
> not an AusE preculiarity; rather, /raT/ is an AmE peculiarity. (Hence
> British newspapers calling _Portnoy's complaint_ _The gripes of Roth_.)
I hear enough [rAT] and Bostonian [raT] to find the pun funny, but
of course GA (and I) have [r&T].

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

Replies