Re: New Try from a New Guy

On Sat, Dec 14, 2002 at 10:53:45AM -0800, Michael David Martin wrote:
> One observation I have related to this, is that the IPA chart
> (http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/ipa/full/ipachart_vowels.html) doesn't have
> representations for exactly my pronunciations. For example, I think my
> [e] is more open than the sound example given on this page. In fact,
> none of the sound examples sound completely "right" to my ears, but
> they're close enough that I can recognize them.
The IPA is not intended to represent every possible sound, since there is
practically an infinite number of variations, differing from person to
person, from region to region, etc.. AFAIK, a sound is only included in
the IPA chart if there is a known natlang which makes a *phonemic*
distinction between that sound and the next closest sound. So each IPA
sound does actually cover a small number of different actual sounds. But
since there is no phonemic distinction (at least in any known natlang), it
is "accurate enough".

> Is Californian English officially considered a separate dialect? :)
[snip]

I don't know... but at least langu^H^H^H^H^Hdialects like Texan are widely
recognized as distinct from "English" proper. ;-)


T

--
People say I'm indecisive, but I'm not sure about that. -- YHL, CONLANG

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