Re: OT: "Claw" (was "I'm new at this")

En réponse à David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>
> 1.) First, we're talking about the word "claw", which is usually the paw
> of
> an animal which has with sharp nails.
>
Yes.

> 2.) [A] is a low, back, unrounded vowel, and [aw] is a front, low,
> unrounded
> vowel followed by a labio-velar glide (or some sort of high, back,
> rounded
> coda), forming a diphthong.
>
Indeed.

> 3.) The word "clod" has [A] ([k_h5A:d]), and the word "cloud" has [aw]
> ([k_h5aw:d]).
>
First problem. In your dialect maybe, but I never heard "clod" pronounced with
[A]. At most with [O]. Also, [5] in that position I never heard (and I *do*
recognise this one normally). Is it pronounced this way in British English?

> 4.) The word "clawed" is identical to the word "clod" in pronunciation,
> and
> NOT "cloud".
>
No for the first part, but yes for the second. OK, so "aw" in claw is not the
same as in "clown", but it's definitely a diphtongue, ending as high as the
diphtongue in "clown" or "cloud". Maybe [ow] or [Ow].

> 5.) The only other pronunciation of "claw" is [k_h5O], where [O] is an
> open-mid, back, rounded vowel.
>
Are you sure of that? I mean, I always heard it with a diphtongue, and I'm not
usually making things up.

> Those are the five main possible sticking points that I foresee.   If
> those
> all hold up, though, and we're not getting any wires cross, then where
> have
> you heard this pronunciation?   I'd be curious to know, and to see what
> other
> variations exist in that dialect.
>
Just on TV, so I cannot tell what dialect it could be. But it didn't seem to be
any special dialect, since the rest was pretty much standard (as in, it was no
marked dialect that I would recognise as such). I think it was non-rhotic.
Also, I heard it more than once, and on different programs, so I doubt it's so
peculiar.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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