Tom Tadfor Little wrote:
> I say /i:NglIS/ (remember we were conflating N with Ng)
I'm confused. I've never heard that pronunciation from any native
speaker -- although I know some Brazilian and Russian language students
who sound a leetel like this. ;-)
I tried that several times and I find myself sounding goofy. /INlIS/,
on the other hand, flows off the tongue nicely and effortlessly. I seem
to dwell on the /N/ rather than the /i/.
> most non-phoneticians
> would probably tell you that "English" and "rely" both have a "long E".
Even an average American, who knows as good as nothing about
linguistics, would have to realize after some contemplation that the
sound in "English" is the same as in "bin": a short, lax /I/.
> Where do you live? Although I can understand that those words are not
> always articulated with /i:/, they don't seem at all strange to me with it.
Switzerland. =) I don't häf de tippickel Sviss äcksent, dough.
(Pronounce ck as an uvular affricate...)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Tom Tadfor Little tom@telp.com
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
> Telperion Productions www.telp.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hmmm... could the Spanish influence from the border have something to do
with your /i:NglIS/? ;-)
-- Christian Thalmann