Re: Perfect Pitch

> Y'know, I've always wondered about /a/ myself.   I hope some other
listers
> take sides on this issue;   I haven't heard the authorities speak
on the
> 'low back' vs. 'low central' issue either.
About those low vowels.  Maybe this might help someone.  At least me
anyway.

Low front unrounded is ae ligature, found in English (RP British and
"Middle" American), of course.  Also found in Finnish, Arabic,
Hungarian (short e, which can also be [E]), Thai, Korean, Azeri, Uzbek,
Persian (Farsi at least) and prolly some Ethiopian languages (not
Amharic).

Low back unrounded, also in English: American "father" and "hot".  Also
found in Common Turkic a.

Low central unrounded... well, it's something close to the Texan
pronunciation of i in "my", "by", "tie" (/a_i/ for most of the US).
But I think this vowel is a little more closed.  IPA inverted print a
is found in Portuguese and Amharic; maybe that's close Texas long i.

Low back rounded: British English "hot", Hungarian short a, Persian
long a.  (IPA inverted script a.)

Low front unrounded: a very rare vowel indeed.  I can't think of any
natlangs with this!  (Common Turkic o-umlaut maybe?)

Rarer still is the low central rounded vowel -- only language with
anything close to that is French, which according to what I've heard
somewhat rounds their "schwas" (thus IPA o-horizontal bar).

The difference between back and front on the low vowels is much less
than that of the high vowels.  It is possible IMO to have a language
with the phonemes i, i-bar, u-bar and u.  (Swedish, Russian, Romanian
have three of these four, that is, one of the central vowels.)  But
English is probably the only real-world language with front, central
AND back rounded vowels.

(Tech doesn't even have that.  There's IPA ash, a and inverted v
however...)

DaW.

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