Hi!
Tristan Alexander McLeay <conlang@...> writes:
>...
> > I've been told that I have a good accent in Russian, incluing my [1].
> > Which I used to think was a diphthong starting with something like
> > [@], but apparently that was all in my head and just part of how I
> > thought about the articulation...
>
> What is the sound? It surely can't *actually* be [i\], can it?
[1] = [i\], yes. :-)
> When I hear it, it sounds like [wi] after labio-velars and an
> exaggerated version of my own /i:/ in most other cases (my /i:/ is
> definitely diphthongal, something along the lines of [Ii]); I'd
> assume in this case I'm hearing [i\i] or something along those
> lines.
I also perceived the Russian /1/ to be diphthongised and something
around [1i)] -- at least in stressed position.
>...
> > That is indeed an infamous feature of German (and Slavic) accents.
> > And I totally get the substitution of [v] for [w] when the L1 has no
> > [w]. But the reverse phenomenon (use of [w] for |v|) confuses me.
> > Does that really happen outside of Hollywood accents? If so, why?
> > Hypercorrection?
>
> Dunno about Germans (the ones I've heard either get it right or
> (sometimes) use [v] for /w/), ...
Really? Saying [v] for /v/ is really hard in English! :-) I think
the problem is that we Germans switch to English mode, i.e. switch
all /r/ > [r\] and
all /v/ or /w/ (we can't distinguish by default) > [w]
Both [r\] and [w] don't exist in German but seem to be quite easy --
most Germans I know have no problem with them (in contrast to [T] and
[D]). So we just switch completely.
Since /v/ is far less frequent in English than /w/, we just don't get
_divide_ right: many Germans I know pronounce this with a [w].
I think that's about how it works.
**Henrik
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http://www.conlang.info/relay13/