Re: Californian vowels [was Re: Liking German]

On Friday, September 28, 2001, at 07:16 PM, D Tse wrote:

>>     Well, of course it's velar [L], but you can honestly tell the
> difference
>> between [mELk] and [mILk]?  So, if I recorded, say, twenty
> instances of both
>> and mixed them up, you would be able to tell one from the other?
> Hmm...
>>
>> -David
>
> Oh yeah, of course I could. Is it that difficult?
Same here.  It's not difficult for us, but if you're not used to the
distinction...<shrug>  I've known any number of English-speaking American
acquaintances to have *major* trouble distinguishing between Korean's
aspirated, non-aspirated and tensified stops, not to mention the
affricates.

YHL, who is borderline lactose-intolerant and keeps getting reminded of
that every time she tries to have milk with more than a small bowl of
cereal :-p