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

    Christophe wrote:

"Quite close indeed, X-SAMPA /gu:s/.

/gu:s/? I say [gus].

"As for the difference, it's similar to the difference between the vowels in
"eat" and "it" (I hope you do hear that difference).

Philippe might know the difference; he speaks Russian. Or is it Polish that
has the distinction?

"That's because there's no [gUs] and no [kuk] in English, but as I showed
with "eat" and "it", some words are only distinguished by those two sounds.
You're just lucky that [u] and [U] have a low distinction ratio (I can't
think personally of any words that are distinguished only by those two
sounds)."

book /bUk/ ~ buck /bVk/
look /lUk/ ~ luck /lVk/ ~ Luke /luk/ ~ lock /lOk/ ~ lack /l{k/ ~ lake /lek/
...

-----

John C. wrote:

"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"

That's too many words! In my 'lect:
kit
dress, square
trap, bath, happy
lot, cloth, thought, palm
strut, start
nurse
fleece, near
face
goat, north, force
goose
price
choice
mouth
comma

'cure' and 'letter' don't count because they're /k_jr\=/ and /lE4r\=/.