Re: The fourteen vowels of English?

Paul Bennett wrote:

> 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/...
>
> /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).
>
> There may well be some missing /:/s in there, as I'm pretty bad at
> detecting vowel length in my own speech. The /Aj)/s might actually be
> /Vj)/ in my lect, or something in between.
>
> More than just something for y'all to chew on, since I'm still kinda half
> working on that onset/peak/coda writing system for English, and I think I
> need some opinions on what I've managed to drag together so far. I might
> need a distinct /ju/ from /u/, but I can only think of one case: /dud/
> dude ~ /djud/ dewed.
>
> Anything obvious I've missed?
>
>
>
> Paul
>
hew hewed v who'd above
and what about 'hod'  and how 'howed'?

David Barrow

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