Aroha from Honoruru....

Hi!

On 13 October 1997, 23:33 (+0100), George E. Harding wrote:
> Hell if I know.  I was merely referring to the
> _stereotypical_, not linguistic confusion.  Remember, I'm
> still working on how Goethe rhymed _Buehne_ with _Biene_,
> and how Heine did the same with _Weh_ and _Hoeh'_.
Bühne /"by:n@/   Weh /ve:/
Biene /"bi:n@/   Höh' /h2:/

(To those that do not have the archives of that time at
hand: The situation was that George wondered about why
German "Bühne" (stage) and "Biene" (bee) respectively "Weh"
(woe) and "Höh'" (height) apparently rhyme. Several list
members tryed to explain this but the wrong conclusion was
made that this is due to dialect and might not work in the
standard language. James F. Bisso was right about the
vowels being pairs [i] ~ [y], [e] ~ [2] however.)

The first one is a consonance (same consonants, different
vowels), for what it's worth, despite of graphological
differences. However, as James Bisso said, the rhyme between
"Bühne" and "Biene" and "Weh" and "Höh'" is based on
features both vowels have in common: [i] = tense close front
*unrounded*, [y] = tense close front *rounded*; [e] = tense
close-mid front *unrounded*, [2] = tense close-mid front
*rounded* -- that's all. I've read that Goethe had a
Frankfurt accent, and since Heine comes from somewhere
around Gießen, his dialect should have been similar to
Goethe's a Sothern Hessian one. Nevertheless this does not
matter here since the two examples given should also rhyme
in the standard language. I'm certain there is a name for
this, but I don't know it. Does this kind of rhyme not exist
in English? Is it due to English lacking phonemic
front-rounded vowels?

Carsten

--
"Miranayam kepauarà naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
Venena, Lahang 9, 2315 ya 10:31:39 pd