Re: IPA griefs

Adrian Morgan wrote:

> Now for an experiment. Approach any English speaker, and ask: "What does
> ['medZ@] mean?"
I would reply "It's a British pronunciation of 'major'".  I suppose the
word you're referring to is "measure", which is ['mEZr=] for me.
(Does Oz English have [E] at all?)

But to answer your question seriously:  "medger" does not seem a plausible
variant of "measure" to me.

After some reflection, though, I hit on the minimal pair "leisure"/"ledger",
though this does not work for all Merkins, many of whom have ['liZ=r] for the
former.  In hackish slang, we have "adger" (to wreck something as a result
of an elementary mistake), which is a minimal pair with "azure".

--
There is / one art                   || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less                    || http://www.reutershealth.com
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with art- / lessness                 \\ -- Piet Hein