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Re: 1. YAESR

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 13:43
Tim May wrote:

>Joe wrote at 2005-04-19 07:13:16 (+0100) > > Tim May wrote: > > > > >How is /z/ almost non-phonemic in Engish? There are hundreds of > > >minimal pairs in RP. > > > > Yes? Well, I couldn't think of any at the time, though now I can > > think of bass /bEjs/ and baize /bEjz/. But I also have a length > > distinction - so the latter is more like [bE:iz]. > > > >Isn't that predictable before a voiced consonant? > >You might find this page useful: >http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/wordlist/ > >/s/ vs /z/ is here:http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/wordlist/SUEZOO.txt > >I don't agree with all of them - sometimes there's a vowel difference. >I don't know if this is me diverging from RP, or if those are supposed >to be predictable secondary effects, or what. But most of them do >work for me. > > > Either way, I suspect you could spell them, in that case, as > > 'beiss' and 'beis', respectively - maybe. > >That was what I was thinking. I don't see any better solution >(although you clearly know more about Welsh than me). You could cut >down on <ss>s a bit by writing 's and plural -s as <s> even when >they're phonetically [s]; e.g. <cats> rather than <catss>. It's >underlyingly /z/ anyway, IIRC. > >
Or possibly underlyingly /s/. I can't imagine an [s] occuring after a voiced consonant. I was planning only to double it when there's ambiguity. (e.g. 'Ssw' 'Sue' and 'Sw' 'Zoo'). Of course, I don't think it's attested in Welsh, but it has precedent (ff vs. f).
> > > > >I like the scheme, though. > > > > > >(You pronounce "one" [wQn]?) > > > > > > > > > > > Yes - is that unusual? It's certainly the norm in this area (south > > Oxfordshire). > >Statistically, I don't know. It may be quite common - it just >surprised me. What I have for "one" (and "won"), and what my >dictionaries say, is [wVn]; [wQn] is "wan". > > >
Interesting. I merge 'one' and 'wan' as [wQn], but not 'won' [wVn].

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Muke Tever <hotblack@...>