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Re: New Try from a New Guy

From:Michael David Martin <mdmartin@...>
Date:Sunday, December 15, 2002, 7:12
----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh Roth" <Fuscian@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: New Try from a New Guy


> but what I think you (Michael) are saying is that you want this to > be one sound, but you can't quite pin down an IPA letter to represent it > with. If you want it to be like a certain English sound you're thinking
of,
> it's probably either [V] (as in the first syllable of 'butter') or [@] (as
in
> the first syllable of 'potato' - both of those in 'standard' American > pronunciation at least). Or you might want the first pronunciation when
it's
> stressed, and the second when it's not, or something similar. >
When I listened to the examples for [@], [3], [6] and [V] they sounded enough alike that I'd consider them the same *letter* if I heard someone else say a word with those sounds. I guess I could just pick one and say that's how it always pronounced. That may be better. Afterall, if the actual possibilities of differences in pronunciation are actually infinite then you'd need to define an infinite number of allophones. But how far away from a sound can you get before it becomes recognizable as a different sound? I think I'm beginning to understand why IPA and SAMPA can only ever be approximations; and maybe I just shouldn't worry about being exact. ---------------------------------------- Michael David Martin, Master Mason Temecula/Catalina Island Lodge #524 Free & Accepted Masons of California