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Re: Spelling pronunciations (was: rhotic miscellany)

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 10, 2004, 11:57
Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:

> From: Muke Tever <hotblack@...> > Tristan Mc Leay <conlang@...> wrote: > > > ISTR some American dialects also have /wVt/ for 'what'. > > > > I think that's _most_ American dialects. Er, what vowel do your people > > put in it? > > Do you really speak a dialect of American English that contrasts > /V/ with /@/? My dialect certainly doesn't make such a contrast. > (My dialect also allows for a voiceless glide at the beginning.)
I don't know if that's what you're refering to, but some Americans I've heard on TV seem to produce "what", or rather the astounded interjection "What?!?", like [hwAt] with an audible initial glottal fricative. Is this anything any of you Americans rec'nize? I probably noticed it due to my faux-archaic habit of adding a [h] in front of Swedish question-words in 'v-'. They, of course, descend from the same IE kw that gave English 'wh-' and Latin 'qu-'. Sometimes I even adopt the pronunciation of certain northern dialects, which have [kv] here. Andreas

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John Cowan <jcowan@...>