Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Phoneme winnowing continues

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Thursday, June 5, 2003, 17:05
Mark J. Reed scripsit:

> (English has both sounds but they're not phonemically distinct; initial > and medial "th" is always [D] while final "th" is always [T])..
It's not quite so simple, and there are minimal pairs like thy/thigh. In general, /D/ appears: 1) intervocalically. 2) finally where -e has become silent. 3) initially in function words (the, their, them, they, those, that, etc. etc.). 4) idiosyncratically in "with" (but not in all dialects nor in all instances). Otherwise /T/ is used. -- A witness cannot give evidence of his John Cowan age unless he can remember being born. jcowan@reutershealth.com --Judge Blagden http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

Reply

Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>