Re: NATLANG: Long/Short Variations in English

Rob Haden said:
> Hey everyone,
>
> I was wondering if anyone had an explanation for some long/short
> variations
> of words in English.  Here are the words:
>
> "a": /@/ ~ /a/ vs. /e:/ (< /a:/)
> "the": /D@/ vs. /Di:/ (< /De:/)
> "to": /t_h@/ vs. /t_hu:/ (< /t_ho:/)
> "you": /j@/ ~ /ja/ vs. /ju:/
>
> What process(es) caused these originally allophonic pairs to exist?

(I assume you mean "allomorphic" instead of "allophonic". If you really
meant "allophonic", then I don't understand your question.)

I think there are phonological processes that cause non-emphasized forms
to be "reduced". These processes are highly sensitive to rate of speech as
well as pragmatic intent.

As you imply, these forms are not allomorphs today to the extent that they
are semantically or pragmatically distinctive (there *are* two allomorphs
of one morpheme that we write "the", but there is also a second morpheme
that we write the same way).

But what makes you think they ever *were* allomorphic?


-- Mark