Re: allophones again, but English - not French

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Robert Jung wrote:

> Are these two thingies allophones or separate phonemes: /a/ [a], /A/
> [A]? I can't find any minimal pairs.
Yes (that is, they are allophones or separate phonemes).

It all depends on your dialect. My dialect doesn't have [A], for instance,
except perhapsfully for the beginnig of the diphthong 'long i'. In some
British and American dialects, they're distinct phonemes (though not
equivalent).

English vowels vary radically between dialects, hence this kind of
question we generally ask that you don't ask.

(And no, telling me your dialect won't help because I probably won't
know.)

--
Tristan