Re: English syllable structure

Is the `Costa' we're talking about as in Costa Rica (/kQst@ ri:k@/ for
me, for the record)?

Tristan

anstouh@yahoo.com.au

War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
                       - BSD Games' Fortune


On Sun, 9 Dec 2001, Elliott Lash wrote:

>  "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...> writes:
>
> > Quoting And Rosta <a.rosta@...>:
> >
> > > Kou:
> > > > /nIk@rA:gju@/ sounds distinctly British (BBC) to my ears. Too, the
> > > car
> > > > "Jaguar" pronounced à la britannique sounds like  /dZ&gju@/.
> > >
> > > In English English _Nicaragua_ and _jaguar_ rhyme in /&gju:@/.
> > > /nIk@'r&gw@/ or (god help us!) /nIk@'rA:gw@/ would sound insufferably
> > > pretentious. It seems to be symptomatic of the different ways that
> > > English and American English do Foreign. E.g. Eng E renders _pasta_
> > > and _costa_ as /p&st@/ and /kQst@/, as tho they were native E words,
> > > whereas Am E does them as /pAst@/ and /kowst@/, i.e. with Am E
> > > phonemes but Foreign phonotactics (alient for monomorphemic words).
>
> Hmm..../pAst@/ and /kOst@/ for me...a native New Yorker. Why does there seem to be an
> overwhelming tendency to think that there's ONE American pronunciation. You
> can make generalizations like the one you do in the above paragraph.
>
> >
> > How do the American pronunciations you cite have alien phonotactics?
> > "Costa" is distinguishable from "coaster" for me only from the final
> > vowel, where I have r-coloring for <-er>.  Because there is an enclitic
> > version of "of" in my dialect, which has no /v/, "pasta" can rhyme
> > in my dialect with "cost of" ("The cost of the food surprised me" =
> > [D@.kAs.t@.D@.fu:d.sr=.praI(zd.mi]).
>
> And here we have proof that there's different Dialect and Accent groups in
> America. I say: "Costa" /kOst@/ "Coaster" /kowstr=/ "Cost of" /kOst@/ or
> /kOst Uv/
>
> And the sentence: [D@ kOst@ D@ fu:d s@praizd mi]
>
> So...basically..there are many many different ways of pronouncing things here in America...I guess
> that sums up my point, in a somewhat coherent fashion. :)
>
> Elliott
>