Re: troubles with IPA vowels (was: Leute)

--- "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...> wrote:
> I'd rather think that the reason is that the vowel
> of English <pet> is
> halfway between IPA [e] and [E], so that it's hard
> to decide which one
> should be used. This is based on the assumption that
> [e] and [E] correspond
> to French /e/ and /E/ as in <chanterai> [Sa_~tRe]
> vs. <chanterais> [Sa_~tRE]
> (in conservative standard pronunciation).
>
> The SAMPA doesn't offer the two options you
> mentioned, but rather /pet -
> peIt/ vs. /pEt - peIt/.
Seems to me that this distinction bewtween [e] and [E]
brings to long discussions. Clearly, many people,
either French, either non-French, don't feel it at all
(although to me it is important). Also clearly, this
distinction leaves place for a third possibility in
between (and possibly more on the edges ?). It seems
that here the notion of archiphoneme (or: archiphone
?) is welcome.

Anyway, I can't think of any possibility of
pronouncing English 'pet' like in 'chanterai'. But
perhaps 'chanterai' is a bad example, because: 1/ we
seldom use the future simple 1st person when speaking
(rather: je vais chanter); 2/ many French people will
pronounce it just like 'chanterais', and even write it
this way (general and regrettable confusion
consecutive to terrible cultural decay). It would be
better to use "chanter"/"chanté"/"chantez" against
"chantais" as examples, these being really in use, and
significative.

There exists a personal and/or local variation of the
French finals in /e/, obtained by adding a /I/ at the
end of them: Sa_~tRe > Sa_~tReI (I would write it in a
French way like: "chant'réye", or "chanteréye"). Some
politicians pronounce so, and it's usually the only
interesting thing in their speech. I don't know
whether this comes from a special area, or if it is
cultural. So that would be an allophone of /e/ ?

To me, this difference between /e/ and /E/ is similar
to the one existing in German between 'Reder' and
'Räder', for ex.


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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