Re: question on vowel tensing, fronting, backing, ect.

On Dec 11, 2007 3:27 PM, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> Right.  In that case you have a difference that's usually phonemic (/i/ vs
> /I/), so you can hear it easily.  But in this environment (_[N]) those two
> phonemes have merged.  You can argue about whether "king" is phonemically
> /kIN/ or /kiN/ for people who have that merger, but it's a difference that
> makes no difference.
Similarly, I think, for environments such as the last vowel in "city",
which is intermediate between my "typical" /i/ and my typical /I/, and
I'm not sure which phoneme to assign it to -- not that it matters,
though, since as you say, it's a difference that makes no difference.

(I learn towards /I/ on the basis that [I] is how that vowel is
pronounced by "posh" people.)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

Replies