Re: USAGE: VOT and the status of /r/

Tom Weir:
> Marcos wrote:
> > What's the phonemic status of trailing -r in non-rhotic
> > English?  Is it considered an underlying phoneme whose phonetic
realization
> > is a modification of the preceding vowel (or none at all, in the case of
> > schwa), or merely a graphical convention used to indicate in writing
which
> > of two vowel phonemes should be selected?  (At least in those cases
> > where English spelling has some bearing on pronunciation.)
>
> With respect, I must disagree with Tristan.  In most nonrhotic
> dialects, the /r/ is really there underlyingly.  One can prove
> this by how it will show up as a regular English [r] in liaison
> situations, as when the following word begins with a vowel.  The
> only catch is that a lot of nonrhotic dialects, such as some in
> Britain and New England, have an epenthetic linking-r where
> historically no such /r/ existed*.  To my knowledge, nonrhotic
> varieties of the American South do not have that linking-r.
I wasn't talking about varieties of the American South, but only my
English. As I said, in my English, and TTBOMK Australian English of all
registers by all native speakers (who aren't trying to sound
conservatively British), the epenthetic linking-r is *always* added
after *every* case of @ or long monophthongs (excluding /Ii/ and /u\:/).
'Idea is' is pronounced [AidI:r\Iz] by me and those I speak with. So I
really don't see why you'd say it was underlyingly there in the only
English I'm capable of commenting on :)

Mark's made a more recent post which I was thinking of replying to
humorously commenting on such epenthetic Rs; I was going to respond and
say if I *didn't* add them, then, of course, the R is underlyingly there.

> *(This fact is not expected if one holds to a theory of phonology
> such as Optimality Theory where the quality of epenthetic segments
> should fall out from general markedness constraints.)
I'm not sure what any of that means :)

--
Tristan
(apologises for the name that appears on this message)