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Re: [IE conlangs]]

From:Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 13, 1999, 3:00
On Mon, 12 Apr 1999 19:08:10 -0500 Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
writes:
>Steg Belsky wrote: >> In the NYC / Long Island area /&/ before nasals and /s/ (grass, can, >ran, >> Sam, bass, damn, fast; but it seems not before /N/) becomes the >diphthong >> [e@]. It also happens in other words, such as "bad" and "stab".
>Well, those are both voiced stops... does it also happen with "bag"? >If so, >then you have a soundlaw in operation there. If not, then it might be >that >your vowel breaking (diphthongization) there might specificly exclude >velar consonants. Which would be an interesting soundlaw.
Yup, "bag" is [be@g], "rag" is [re@g], "sag" is [se@g]. However, "magazine" is ['m&g@zi:n], with an [&].
>BTW, does it also happen to & / _z ? As in "as" or "frazzled" or >something >like that.
Nope, [&z] (frequently [@z]) and [fr&zld]. Hrrm...here's a list of "a" before all the consonantal sounds i can think of: (yes for [e@], no for [&]) dab - YES rack - no bad - YES calf - YES rag - YES badge - YES pal - no (but: pail - YES) ram - YES man - YES gap - no narrator - no * (although this may have something to do with the word being multisyllabic...i couldn't think of any words that are only one syllable ending in -ar which weren't [a] like "far", "car") grass - YES cat - no calves - YES * (but savvy - no....it could have to do with the length of the word, or "calves" could just be because of "calf") ax - no as - no cats - no batch - no bath - YES sang - no crash - YES azure - no * (but that could be because it's multisyllabic) fads - YES There could be something to the one / many syllable(s) distinction, for instance: "dab" YES, but "rabbit" NO, but "grab it" YES "bad" YES, but "paddy" NO "calf" YES, but "daffodil" NO, but "rafting" YES (from "raft" YES) "rag" YES, but "dagger" NO, "drag her" YES "badge" YES, but "badger" NO "ram" YES, but "camera" NO "man" YES, as well as "bandit", "fancy", "Randall", "transportation"...maybe /n/ always does it... "grass" YES, but "tacit" NO "calves" YES, but "savvy" NO "bath" YES, but "mathematics" NO but "math" YES "crash" YES, but "fashion" NO "fads" YES (i can't think of any multisyllabic /dz/ word) And it's also "gonad" NO... So far it seems that /&/ becomes [e@] in monosyllabic words (and their derivatives) before the consonants: / b d f g m s v T S / , and possibly always before /n/. Hrrm...what do those have in common? Or alternately, what do the other consonants have in common that keeps /&/ the way it is?
>======================================================= >Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
-Stephen (Steg) "a tune you can't get from a shofar" ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]