Re: Elvish ideas ...

Perhaps I'm wrong then... *shrugs* it just feels long to me... he says
in his dialect the vowel in suit is shorter than in soon, but when I say
them the u vowels sound the same in suit and soon, in both length and
quality.

>Quoting Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...>
>
>
>
>>I'm checking my pronunciation again... there's definately a long u in my
>>"suit"... "assume" pronounced asu:m feels english but maybe with an
>>american accent to me... saying prezju:m that feels like a normal
>>pronunciation to me too...
>>
>>
>
>I think Mark's point was that for the vast, vast (vast...)
>majority of English speakers, vowels are allophonically
>lengthened before voiced obstruents.  Thus, for a speaker
>to have a long [u:] before a voiceless obstruent like in
>'suit' is contrary to all expectation. It suggests that
>you have a phonemic distinction of length (/u/ v. /u:/)
>in addition to one of quality (/u/ v. /U/).
>
>==========================================================================
>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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