Re: Case/Tense question

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tom Wier wrote:
> > Why a /?/ there?  That could work if you assume the colony derives
> > from a Cockney-like dialect
>
> Well, I made the (possibly unlikely) assumption that the Cockney glottal
> stop spread across other dialects sometime in the 21st or 22nd century,
> I just really like that glottal stop.
Well, it seems to me the intervocalic /t/ is somewhat unstable in most
English dialects, becoming for example voiced in American dialects.  It
might work if you assume it spreads over non-American English dialects,
like Australian or South African (or the rest of the British dialects themselves).

And, of course, you need not assume it spread very far at all.
As you pointed out, the colony you're creating was small, and could
have come primarily from one region on earth, which did have /?/.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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