Re: "Standard English"?

abrigon wrote:
>
> Found the below on sci.lang
>
> In article <19991230163944.29845.00000080@...>,
> nahali@aol.com (Nahali) wrote:
> Many dictionaries like World Book(many dictioanries I have seen
> use the same system) give transcriptions with symbols that show
> different vowels which I don't hear in most speakers of American
> English of the Midwest or even on the news.  Does anyone speak
> Standard American English?  Many people I meet claim to, but they
> don't distinguish many vowels according to what many dictionaries
> list.
> For example:
> The vowels in the words:  care, air, where, their How is this
> vowel sound different from the vowels in the words:
> bread, friend?
> They are given different symbols.
> Also, should the vowels in the words: hot, cot, and Don be
> pronounced like in the word father or as in RP(with the rounded
> vowel)?
> Here is a list of words with vowels that distinct according to
> World Book:
> 1.  hat
> 2.  age
> 3.  care
> 4.  father
> 5.  many
> 6.  team
> 7.  pearl
> 8.  bit
> 9.  hot
> 10.  boat
> 11.  all
> 12.  come
> 13.  good
> 14.  move
> 15.  alone (schwa)
> For most speakers of American English I meet(who claim to speak
> standard), the vowels in #4 and #9 are the same.  Also, the
> vowels in #7 and #15 are the same.
> -J
> --
> ÿØÿà
>
I have different pronunciation of all those vowels, although 4 and 9 are
really close.  I've often wondered how they are actually different from
each other, but I know that they don't sound the same.  I feel like with
9 the back of my tongue is farther down than it is with 4.

Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
http://nicole.conlang.org