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Re: The fourteen vowels of English?

From:Mark P. Line <mark@...>
Date:Saturday, September 4, 2004, 16:01
Paul Bennett said:
> I remember reading somewhere that English has 14 vowels (presumably > including diphthongs), but that every dialect collapses at least two of > them together. > > Well, I decided to measure my own lect, and got some surprising results. I > have at least 17 vowels that I can think of, all of which can appear > between /h/ and /d/...
You might consider the possibility that some of your examples contain an /r/.
> /hid/ heed > /hId/ hid > /hed/ head > /hEd/ haired > /had/ had > /hAd/ hard > /hVd/ HUD - a bit of a cheat, since it's a acronym > /hOd/ hoard (or whored) > /h@U)d/ hoed (as in the garden tool) > /hUd/ hood > /hud/ who'd > /h3d/ heard > /hI@)d/ *heared (also seen in "beard") > /hAj)d/ hide > /hAj@))d/ hired > /hej)d/ heyed (past of "to exclaim 'hey'") > /hOj)d/ *hoyed (putative past of "to exclaim 'hoy'", which is a real > exclamation, but I'm not sure I've ever seen it verbed).
-- Mark

Replies

Joe <joe@...>
Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>