Re: OT: Slightly OT: French as a second language

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On Tue, 20 Nov 2001, Patrick Dunn wrote:

> It's not quite like the vowel in "foot," to my untrained ear.  More like
> slurring together the y and the vowel in "you" so that it's one sound.  Of
> course, you could also try the "make an /i/ and purse your lips," which
> works for some people -- although my Old English prof used to do it over
> and over, never telling us what she was doing, until one guy finally said,
> in frustration, "Okay, so you make the eeee sound and then make a funny
> face."  She blinked at him a couple times.  "Right," she said, giving up.
> :)
Which leads me to wonder... To me, who speaks only Australian English, all
vowels that aren't in my version of English, except for [o] and [V] and
ignoring length (i.e. [O:] exists, so [O]'s non-existance is excepted)
sound like some warped version of /3\:/, and speakers seem to agree with
me with at least the front rounded vowels: French words that are used in
speach invariably have the /9/ and /2/ pronounced as /3\:/*. Or, in other
words, almost all vowels that aren't in Aussie English are essentially
/3\:/. Can other people make generalisations about vowels they don't have
in their spoken languages?

*This means that both the American verbal diarhoea /r:/ and the French one
/9:/ (or /2:/ or something) get `borrowed' as /3\:/.

Tristan

anstouh@yahoo.com.au

War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
                       - BSD Games' Fortune
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