USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: RE: Not *that* vowel again! (was: Personal adjectives (was:Fruitful typos...)

Tom:
> Well, maybe, but even linguists of great reknown often make pronouncements
> about language that are just flat wrong.  Chomsky, for example AFAIK still
> insists
I'm not aware of him having said anything about English phonology for
the last 30 years.

> that no English dialects have [i] before velar nasal [N], but this
> is clearly incorrect -- everyone I know, or have ever met, uses will say
> /pleiiN/, not /pleiIN/, for <playing>.
A strange example of Chomsky's fallibility. I take your word for it that
the people in your vicinity say [pleiiN], but the norm is [pleI(j)IN].
I say [pleIN] and [pleI@N].

> > I know one person who pronounces the land of his birth as ['ke@n@d@],
>
> I suspect, though obviously cannot prove, in this case that he has
> [k_h&^n@d@] -- where [&^] represents a raised vowel somewhat
> closer to [E] found in many Western and Southern dialects (which
> applies to Western Canada, as well).
Are there any phoneticians reading? Dirk? My understanding of the phonetics
is that [E] represents the sound when there is maximal openness without
pharyngeal constriction; i.e. if you start at [i] and lower the jaw,
without constricting the pharynx, [E] is the other extreme from [i]. [&]
is what you get if you take [E] and add pharyngeal constriction. These
alleged facts lead me to conclude (a) that 'typical' American short A
is [E] and (b) that French /E~/ is in fact [&~]. I have seen estimable
authorities agree with each of these conclusions, but the prevailing
consensus seems still to conflict with them. Some authoritative
clarification would be welcome. On such authority, I am prepared to believe,
say, that [&] is slightly opener than [E], and that the vowel in AmEng &/or
French has [E]'s degree of openness but with some pharyngeal constriction.

> > What strikes me with NYC speech is that /&/ seems to be nasalized in all
> > positions.
>
> This is actually a common feature of many North American dialects.
I believe nasalization is characteristic of [&] either in all accents of
English or in articulation in general. "Believe" = 'based on knowledge
held with less than 100% confidence'.