Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)

James Landau wrote:
>In a message dated 2/2/2003 10:02:50 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>and_yo@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>
>
> > >  Coupe, bayou, tabbouleh, nougat, bouquet, boutique, bijou. Joule,
>while
> > >we're at bijou. Ghoul, toupée, ouzo, louvered, through. Let's see . . .
> > >we're
> > >up to 22. Douche. Crouton. Wound (as in injury, not twisted). (Counts
>them
> > >all up). That gives us safely 25. Only counting words that I'm
>definitely
> > >sure everybody pronounces with the sound, not the words that make for
> > >controversial pronunciation threads like "route" . . . or maybe "croup"
> > and
> > >words like "croup" that I'm not really sure how to pronounce. I also
> > didn't
> > >count proper nouns (which range from Houston to Ouagadougou to the
> > Louvre).
> > >I
> > >also think the correct spelling for the adjective for people who
>practice
> > >the
> > >religion of Voodoo is "Voudoun". And "boulevard" has the same vowel
>sound
> > >as
> > >"could" and "would", even though it doesn't have an "ld" after it.
> >
> > I don't think I've ever heard an actual native anglophone say "ghoul",
>but
> > my dictionary thinks it's [gaUl].
> >
>
>  WHAT? [gaUl]?!? *[gaUl]*?!!?! As in to rhyme with "owl"? Now I've heard
>everything! (Well, technically, I haven't HEARD that one, but I've sure
>read
>it!) I've never heard anything but /gul/ all my life. Is there anyone here
>who's actually heard it rhyming with "owl"?
>
>  I thought that had to be a safe example of an "ou" = /u/ word for sure.
>Now
>am I going to hear someone tell me they put /'krautOnz/ in their salad?
After seeing the other posts in this thread, I think we can safely discount
my dictionary's pronunciation as some kind of error.


     Andreas

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