Re: Country names

Joe wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Barrow" <davidab@...>
> To: <CONLANG@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 7:48 AM
> Subject: Re: Country names
>
> > Joe wrote:
> >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Carlos Thompson" <chlewey@...>
> > > To: <CONLANG@...>
> > > Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 10:32 PM
> > > Subject: Re: Country names
> > >
> > > > Tristan McLeay wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > Robert B Wilson wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > >>We here say /@stSr\&iL@/ where /L/=[j], [lj] or [li].
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >
> > > > > >you say 'istrailyih'? :P
> > > > > >
> > > > > No, everyone else can't say Australia properly, and it has a very
> > > > > obvious pronunciation from its spelling :P
> > > >
> > > > Of course: [aws"t4alja].  Obvious, not?
> > > >
> > > > Well, in my Ideolectical Chibchombian English it would become
> > > > [Os`"t`r`ejlj@], or something like that.  Aussie/Ozzie would be
> ["OzI].
> > > >
> > > > (not sure if that [t`r`] is actually a slightly palatized retroflex
> trill)
> > > >
> > > > Of course, I am not a native English Speaker.
> > > >
> > > > -- Carlos Th
> > >
> > > In RP it would be about the same as you pronounce it, but without the
> > > retroflexes.  [Ostrejlij@]
> >
> > [Qstreili@] with au as the o in lost not as the au in cause say all my
> > dictionaries
> >
> >
> > David Barrow
> >
>
> I'm afraid I can't tell any difference between the two, when short.
Do you pronounce the vowels in caught and court or cause* and course the
same? Aside from whether you accent is rhotic or not.

or the vowels in cot and caught or coss and cause the same?

non rhotic RP has the vowels in the pair cause and course as homophones;
caught and court are complete homophones. My dictionaries have this vowel
sound represented  by a backwards c plus a colon. Most words with "au" / "aw"
and "or" are represented this way. I don't know whether this is best
represented as [O:] or [O] in Sampa. Some exceptions are "Australia", etc;
"Austria", etc; "horrible"; which have backwards script a [Q] the same as
"lot", "not", "lost"   Other exceptions include "because" and "gauge" (no
need to start a thread listing other exceptions! :-) )

*I don't mean 'cause shortened form of because which is [k@z]

David Barrow

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