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YAEPT alert! [Re: Not phonetic but ___???]

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Thursday, April 15, 2004, 13:07
On Thu, Apr 15, 2004 at 08:14:34AM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> The familiar
Not to me. :)
> Wells lexical sets for vowels (KIT, DRESS, TRAP, LOT, STRUT, BATH, > CLOTH, NURSE, FLEECE, FACE, PALM, THOUGHT, GOAT, GOOSE, PRICE, CHOICE, > MOUTH, NEAR, SQUARE, START, NORTH, FORCE, CURE, and the weak vowels > HAPPY, LETTER, and COMMA) make 27 distinctions,
I only count 26 . . .
> but that's almost certainly overkill.
Indeed! Does any 'lect make all of those distinctions? I can't even imagine what the distinction between "north" and "force" or "lot" and "cloth" might be - something conditioned by the /T/? Then again, my 'lect seems to have relatively few distinctions at 16: KIT = NEAR DRESS = SQUARE TRAP = BATH LOT = CLOTH = PALM = THOUGHT STRUT NURSE = CURE = LETTER FLEECE = HAPPY FACE GOAT GOOSE PRICE CHOICE MOUTH START NORTH = FORCE COMMA Now, the vowels of "kit" and "near", and likewise "dress" and "square", are not *quite* the same, because of the sonorant nature of the [\r] (my 'lect is rhotic); the vowels sort of glide into the [r\], turning into quasi-diphthongs. But the distinction is much subtler than that between diferent lines in my list, and if it were admitted, then other distinctions would crop up that aren't included in the list at all - such as BATH (= BACK) vs. BAG (= BANG). -Mark

Replies

<jcowan@...>
Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Joe <joe@...>