Re: E and e

> On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Elliott Lash wrote:
>
> > --- alexandre lang <allexpro@...> wrote:
> > > Could someone please tell me hat is the difference
> > > between the open-mid
> > > front unrounded /E/(epsilon) vowel and the close-mid
> > > front unrounded /e/
> > > vowel? Are they totally different or easily
> > > distinguishable?
> >
> >
> > open-mid front unrounded would be the vowel in
> >
> > /sEt/  <set>
> >
> > close-mid front unrounded would be the vowel in:
> > /sejm/  <same>
> >
> > (note this is slightly diphthongized, in my dialect)
> > And I fear this might start an English pronunciation
> > thread...eep.
How about a Multilingual P.T.??
Official Lang. of Conlang
beest 'beast' [best] (or is it [e:]?)
best 'best' [bEst]

French:
anything written é (e-acute)
anything written è (e-grave) as in "congrès", or sometimes "ai" as in
"j'aime";  presumably both in "aimé, lèse-majesté"
or "e" followed by two consonants-- cette [sEt], both in blessé [blE'se]
(not sure about this....)(1)

(1) a very confusing word if one's French is as imperfect as mine used to
be..."dans la bataille il y avait 500 blessés" 'in the battle there were 500
blessed??????'

German:
[e] as in zehn 'ten'
[E] as in Bett 'bed'

That should cover the usual suspects.......

Indonesian (very marginal, loanwords only)
beda ['beda] 'different'
pesta ['pEsta] 'party'
(their spelling system is sooo helpful)

Portugues and Italian also distinguish /e/::/E/ but no good exs. spring to
mind.......

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