jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:
>Mark P. Line scripsit:
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>>(If it had been said that Rotokas vowels occur *non-phonemically*
>>lengthened, then [a:] would just be an allophone of /a/. This is what
>>we have in English.)
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>Well, in most Englishes. In Australian English, vowel length is phonemic
>(sample minimal pair: [kap] 'cup', [ka:p] 'carp').
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Indeed. My dialect of British English has three length distinctions.
/O/ vs /O:/ bot vs bought
/I/. vs /I:/(sometimes) bid vs. beard
/E/ vs /E:/ ken vs. cairn