Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: English /T/, was Re: Spanish ll in different dialects

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Saturday, August 28, 2004, 16:01
Tim May wrote:

>Joe wrote at 2004-08-28 16:04:47 (+0100) > > Doug Dee wrote: > > > > >IIRC . . . When I was in college, one of my linguistics professors (William > > >Labov), mentioned that for most speakers of American English, the /T/ phoneme > > >is generally not pronounced as an interdental -- the tongue doesn't actually > > >protrude between the teeth. (He mentioned that most black Americans do have an > > >interdental.) > > > > > >This seems to be a case where the traditional description hasn't caught up to > > >drifts in pronunciation. > > > > > > > > > > Yeah, but I speak British English ;-) > >So what? The issue is what Ben speaks, and how it compares to his >teacher's Spanish. > > >
Yeah, I know. I was giving an excuse for my assumption.
>Besides, I speak British English and my [T] isn't >interdental. (Although I can think of a number of reasons why I might >have an unusual realisation of that phoneme.) > > >
Hmm. Judging by Mark's post, I'd say the two might be in free variation across most dialects.