SAu phonetics discussion results

// I will be set to MAIL for (the next 24 hours)+

On Thursday, I spoke to Professor TG Fennell about the phonetics of South
Australian English. The results were inconclusive, because, as he says:

  "It strikes me now that you are looking for a 'narrow' transcription
   of your own speech, rather than a 'broad' transcription of S.A.
   English in general. 'Narrow' transcriptions go far beyond my
   competence, and I rather fancy that very little work has been done
   in this area."

Actually, I don't know of any serious phonetics study in South Australia
whatsoever. Australian phoneticians seem to use transcription conventions
that originated in related dialects and are not technically applicable.
I think the fundamental problem is a shortage of phoneticians!

Prof Fennell suggested possible sources of information in other Australian
universities, but was unsure of whether the relevant people are still
working.

I sent Prof Fennell a list of the most contentious points remaining after
our discussion.

Adrian.