Re: The fourteen vowels of English?

From:    Trebor Jung <treborjung@...>
> Well, here's my 'lect's vocalic inventory (including diphthongs):
>
> heed /i/ ; *heared /ir\/ [Is there such a word at all??] ; hid /I/;
> head /E/ ; haired /Er\/ [Is that even a word??]
Yes: as in "brown-haired"

> had /&/ ; heard, herd /r\=/ ; hawed /A/; hard /Ar\/; HUD /V/
> [Would anyone be so kind as to look through their dictionary to see
> if there are any words [hVd]?]
Besides the American federal bureacracy of that name already
mentioned, I seem to recall reading of an obscure term for the
skin of a peanut spelled and pronounced this way.

> A quick question: I've seen /EI)/, e.g., as well as /Ej)/. Is there
> a difference?
It depends on the language and at what level of organization
you're speaking.  There are languages which have palatal glides
like /j/ which nonetheless treat such an offglide phonemically
as /i/.  So, do as you see fit.

-----------------------------------------------------------

From:    Steven Williams
> I have a funny little split I noticed in my dialect
> (standard American, mild Southern influence). In
> certain words, I pronounce [&] something like [&@],
> and in others, it's straight [&]. Examples:
>
> /man/ [m&@n] (or [mn=] in compounds where it's
> unstressed)
> /fare/ [f&r\] or [fEr\]
> /nab/ [n&@b]
> /nap/ [n&p]
> /hang/ [h&N] or [hEN]
> /nag/ [n&@g]
> /had/ [h&@d]
> /has/ [h&z]
> /ham/ [h&@m]
[...]

> Anyone else have this speech characteristic? It's very
> common around where I live (central Florida) and seems
> to be just a general American phonetic phenomenon.
These features are very common in most Southern American
dialects.  In my dialect, as in many Southern ones, all
front vowels are raised before nasals, as well as before
/r/, which explains the distribution you see here.  In
all English dialects of which I'm aware, vowels are slightly
lengthened before voiced consonants, which explains your
pronunciation of "nab".  The fact that, unlike many Southern
dialects, you do not lengthen the vowel in all monosyllabic
words as you do not in "nap", suggests to me that maybe
these aren't precisely schwas you're saying, but just mainly
the vowel length. (I'd have to hear myself to be sure.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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