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

Mark J. Reed scripsit:

> I only count 26 . . .
Let me try that again:

KIT, DRESS, TRAP, LOT, STRUT, FOOT, 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 left out FOOT before.

> Indeed!  Does any 'lect make all of those distinctions?
Very unlikely.

> 	NURSE = CURE = LETTER
Other people playing with the set should note that the [j] in "cure" is
not part of the common factor; IMHO this keyword is poorly chosen:
POOR would have been better.

> 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.
In the sets involving R's, the R is part of the vowel being looked at.
Thus, for BATH and START, there are three possibilities:  front vowel vs.
back vowel + rhotic, vowel neutralized but still non-rhotic vs. rhotic;
distinction neutralized altogether.  It's not merely the r-coloring of the vowel
that counts for rhotics, but the presence of the [r\] itself.

Details, with GA and RP pronunciations, etymologies, and other words in
the sets, are available at http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~anth383/lexicalsets.html .
Only the first 24 sets are included.

--
So that's the tune they play on                 John Cowan
their fascist banjos, is it?                    jcowan@reutershealth.com
        --Great-Souled Sam                      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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