Re: troubles with IPA vowels (was: Leute)

Roger Mills wrote:

>And yet two more systems, which I've seen mainly in British publications--
>
>--One uses the correct IPA symbols:
>/i/ the tense high vowel
>/small cap I/ lax high vowel
>/e/ tense mid vowel
>/epsilon/ lax mid vowel
>etc.
>(Essentially the same as using X-SAMPA i, I, e, E)
>
>--The other uses the IPA length sign [:] for the tense vowels:
>/i:/ high tense front
>/i/ high lax front
>/e:/
>/e/
>etc.
>
>All systems use /æ/ (ash, &) for the low front vowel, and /a/ for the low
>central/back vowel even though it varies [a]~[6]~[A], but run into trouble
>with the [o] and [O] sounds--
>Amer. /ow/ Brit. /o:/ for the tense vowel of "boat, so"-- but IIRC there is
>no Amer. counterpart */o/ (Brit. may use that for their "pot, caught" but
>what about "law, saw"? since lax V aren't supposed to occur in CV
>monosyllables...?)
>
>
Typically I think the law-vowel (normally /O:/) is considered the tense
counterpart of the hot-vowel (/O/ or /Q/; perscriptivists generally
prefer [O]). The vowels in 'pot' and 'caught' are different; the former
is the hot-vowel, the latter is the law-vowel. Old fashioned accents in
addition have a vowel /O@/, which I think was the vowel in
'four'/'court' vs 'for'/'caught' (which are /O:/), but I'm not entirely
sure if it still exists. In RP, the boat-vowel is almost always
considered a diphthong, and more recently the diphthong is described as
/@u/, so it doesn't even count as back rounded.

>Amer. /reversed c/ for our "law, caught", but there is no diphthongized
>*/rev.c+w/
>
>(I also exclude antipodean varieties, which are a kettle of fish of another
>color.)
>
>
I am also excluding antipodean varieties because it seems to be the
fashion of the day.

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