Re: Just a question...

Tristan wrote:
>Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>>Mangiat wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Just a short question: are English diphthongs phonemic?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Yes.  Most monoglots aren't even aware that there's any difference
>>between a diphthong like /aj/ and a monophthong like /I/.  I remember
>>thinking that diphthong meant "one sound written with two letters" cause
>>I learned that combinations like "ae" and "au" in Latin were called
>>diphthongs, and I didn't realize that they were actually combinations of
>>sounds.  :-)
>>
>Don't worry: you're in good company there. A lot of things about English
>orthography on the Internet (you know, those things pushing for spelling
>reforms and the like) insist on calling things like <th> and <ea>
>diphthongs.
I'm afraid that the anglophone educational system(s) are causing alot of
mental damage in this regard. I once read a pronunciation guide in an
Swedish-English wordlist which asserted that Swedish don't a have length
distinction for vowels, but an duration distinction. I was thorougly
mystified till I realized until I realized that by "length distinction" they
meant differences like /I/ vs /aj/, /{/ vs /ej/ etc that has arisen
historically from real length distinctions.

The"phonemic representation" in the wordlist used conventions like
|igh|=[aj], |aa|=[E] and |ææ|=[e].



Andreas

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