Re: Vowels?

On Wednesday, January 23, 2002, at 06:55 , Padraic Brown wrote:

>> draw a clear line between, for example, /i/ and /c,/ (c cedilla, a
>> palatal
>> fricative).
>
> But no such clear line can be drawn between [i] and [R] (the
> American throaty r, not trilled). I.e., Christophe brings up good
> points about "syllabic consonants". For me, the only difference
> is that the tongue is drawn back a couple mm for the [R]. I tend
> to think of them as vowels, as too many categories make my head
> spin. ;)
No line need be drawn: [R] is a vowel, just as much as [i] is. Traditional
grammarians have it that the vowels are "a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y",
but from an articulatory point of view, that's not the case.

(In addition to the tongue articulation difference, though, [R] as I say
it has rounded lips.)


--
Chris

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