Re: USAGE: Shaw alphabet (was Re: USAGE: Con-graphies)

On 6/11/06, daniel prohaska <danielprohaska@...> wrote:

> I've communicated to some US speakers who have the impression that vowels
> are "long" before <ng>, so that <king> is /kiN/ rather than expected /kIN/.
In my 'lect /I/ and /i/ occur in contrast before /m/ and
/n/, but before /N/ only /i/ occurs.  So minimal
pairs /si:m/ and /sIm/, /s:in/ and /sIn/; but /IN/ never
occurs.  I'm not sure bout the length, but
I think the vowel in /siN/ "sing" is a little shorter than that
in /si:n/ "seen".

OTOH /o/ and /O/ both occur before /n/ and /m/
(e.g. "bomb" /bOm/, "home" /ho:m/)
but only /O/ occurs before /N/, I think ("wrong", etc).
So it's not a simple matter of "long vowel before ng".

> So maybe this extends to /ns/ as well and <dance> is /dens/ and not /d&ns/.
Not in my 'lect; /e/ or /E/ does not occur before
a nasal, nor does pure /&/, but only /I/ or a triphthong like
/&j@/.  (The sound transcribed by some
others as /&@/ sounds more like a triphthong
in at least southern U.S. lects.)

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry