Re: Duke Keenan the Ok guy returns

On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 06:28:19PM -0500, Keenan wrote:
[snip]
> I guess this isn't very clear. But does it need to be?
Yes. The various idiolects of English are different enough that comparing
a vowel to an English word gives almost no information about its actual
value.

> Otherwise I'm not touching the claw thread with a barge pole. Not even
> to enlighten everyone with the correct pronunciation, which exists in
> its purest form in Upstate New York......   ;))
That's precisely the problem. Everyone thinks their idiolect of English
has the "correct", "official" (vowel) pronunciation. But none of these
"official" vowels are the same. :-)

> I mean, after all, I've only just got back. I was never that popular
> when I was here and I certainly don't want to piss everyone off by
> starting the English pronunciation virus again!  :))
[snip]

You don't have to. Just take a couple o' hours to learn basic IPA,
preferably with recordings so that you can tell what the vowels *really*
sound like. And then you can actually talk about vowel pronunciation
without setting off English pronunciation flamewars. (Imagine that!) :-)


T

--
This is a tpyo.

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