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.
In English English /I/ in <king> is tenser than /I/ in <kin>, but they
clearly belong to the same phoneme. /i/ in <keen> is much longer and tenser
(sometimes even diphthongised) than tense /I/ in <king>.
The merger in some varieties of American English is owing to the fact that
most American English varieties are isochronic, i.e. contrasts are
determined by vowel quality alone, whereas English-English distinguishes
quality and quantity (at least in some contexts).
Dan

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