Re: another silly phonology question

On Tue, Nov 28, 2000 at 08:07:11PM +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
[snip]
> >Hmm, that's strange. AFAIK, British English tends to *emphasize* the /t/'s
> >-- [brIt<h>iS h&s glot<h>:@l st<h>Ops].
>
> Oh yes?  What British English have you been listening too?
The English spoken by an English couple from London, England. Of course,
this may have nothing to do with what the younger generation is speaking
today in England, as they (with their two kids) have left England quite
some time ago.

[snip]
> Colloquial Bri?ish English has fousands of glo??l stops.
They're replacing [T] with [f] too?? This is interesting... 'cos this is
exactly what's been happening in Malaysian high schools -- since most of
the children there have never heard the [T] sound and have no idea how to
pronounce it (unless their teachers were patient enough to teach them how
to do it right), they just use [f] as best approximation.

And weirdly enough, those who "know better" and can pronounce [T] tend to
look down on those who can't pronounce [T]... who would've thought that
the British themselves are saying [f] instead of [T] too! :-)

> >But then again, what do I know about colloquial British... :-)
>
> Nuffink   :-)
[snip]

No kidding... this is exactly how the "lesser" of my high-schoolmates
would pronounce "nothing"! :-)


T

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