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

On Monday 25 November 2002 8:03 pm, you wrote:
> David Peterson wrote:
> >Replying to Christophe:
>
> I know this's not addressed to me, but I couldn't resist mentioning a
> couple of points ...
>
> >All right, we've got to get this straight, because the pronunciation which
> >you're saying is normal, I would claim could never exist in any dialect of
> >English in any part of the world ever.   Let me make sure we're not
> > getting any wires crossed here:
> >
> >1.) First, we're talking about the word "claw", which is usually the paw
> > of an animal which has with sharp nails.
> >
> >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.
> >
> >3.) The word "clod" has [A] ([k_h5A:d]), and the word "cloud" has [aw]
> >([k_h5aw:d]).
>
> Are velarized /l/ really that omnipresent? I know that RP I learnt in
> school is kinda out-dated, but is non-velarized /l/ really totally dead?
>
Hmm..well, speaking an RP-ish ideolect, I'd say that alveolar /l/ is alive
and well.  However, David Peterson obviously has screwy English ( just
kidding).

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