Re: USAGE: English, Masculine, Feminine

Staving Paul Bennet:
>On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:42:55 +0100, Michael Poxon <m.poxon@...>
>wrote:
>
>>In British English (at least in my fairly-RP version) these three are all
>>distinct:
>>Mary = /me:rij/ "short" e
>Yes, that's /e:/ in CXS.
>
>>Marry = /m&rij/
>Are you sure it's /&/? /&/ is a sound midway between /a/ and /E/, and is
>actually quite rare in British English -- so much so that I mentally
>assign the attribute "foreigner" whenever I hear it. There are several
>non-IPA systems in which the symbol {ae-ligature} is used for the sound
>that is /a/ in CXS and the symbol {a} is used for the sound that is /A/ in
>CXS (or the sound that is between /a/ and /A/ in CXS), among them the
>system used for Old English (IIRC).
It's not rare at all, especially in northern dialects.
[D@ k&t s&t On D@ m&t]

Pete

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