Re: Elvish ideas ...

Quoting Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...>:

> >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/).
>
> 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.
Well, I'm not saying you're wrong.  It's just very strange
(that is, very interesting). Maybe you should find you local
phonetics lab and test it for yourself?

(BTW, perhaps you could respond *below* posts, rather than
above. I, and I'm sure others, find it very jarring to have
to flip back up to the top after reading the context of posts.)

 =========================================================================
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