Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 20/06/99 15:55:59 , vous avez =E9crit :
> So we notice. Simple vowels seem to want to diphthongize and diphthongs t=
o
> spread out into triphthongs. And their unrounded /u:/ took me off my gua=
rd
> once. We had an Oz friend living in Newport in South Wales. I remember =
on
> our first meeting at one point she aske my "Who?" but as the word lacked
> any initial aspirated and merely consisted of a long, high unrounded back
> vowel, she had to repeat this two or three times before I realized it was =
a
> word and not some antipodean exclamation :-)
i'm no native speaker so i had some trouble to understand that australian=20
ranger who went "[b=F6:rdz flo:j owa:j]" and things like that. ennoying. my=20
friend had to translate to me what he was saying into another language we=20
shared because she couldn't very well merely repeat in english in front of=20
him what he just said... in english. that would have been rude, i guess.=20
people who had heard us discuss in english the minute before were somehow=20
puzzled :-)
i wonder whether english native speakers around the world will still=20
understand each other in a century.=20
mathias