Re: Retroflex vowels?

En réponse à Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>:

> I brought this one up a couple of weeks ago and it
> somehow got missed.  In my idiolect (thanks to whoever
> used that word in a post yesterday!) I say the words
> Paul, pole, and pull (esp the latter two) with what
> seem to be only two phones.  My tongue indeed seems to
> be in a retroflex position; it's like I've assimilated
> the [l] into the vowel.  Would I be right in calling
> this a retroflex vowel?  How would I represent it in
> SAMPA?
>
Well, is it comparable to the vowel in "car"? I mean, the tongue position when
you pronounce the vowel. If it is, it's what is called rhotic vowels.In IPA,
they are marked by a strange little appendix on the top-right hand corner. They
are indeed often called "retroflex vowels" (though the correct name is rhotic
vowels), and in X-SAMPA are marked the same way as retroflex consonants, with a
` sign after the vowel. So we have /a`/, /e`/ and /o`/ as we have /t`/
and /r`/. In fact, I know the retroflex marking of consonants in X-SAMPA is
inspired by the rhotic mark, due to the fact that the acoustic phenomenon is
comparable.

So basically you can call that retroflex vowels or rhotic vowels :) .

> Sorry for these seemingly frivolous posts.  It's
> partly because I've been up bored surfing all night
> and partly because this list is as much a crash course
> in linguistics as anything.
>
Isn't it? :))) I love this list for that. All possible linguistic questions
(and even often non-linguistic questions) get answers here :) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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