Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

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

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 14:12
On Dec 12, 2007 8:19 AM, Daniel Prohaska <daniel@...> wrote:

> 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).
It seems to me that this chronicity difference is, in turn, the result of the rhoticity difference. That is, Eastpondian (better, Tristan? :)) dialects use length to mark many of the same distinctions that we Westpondians mark via rhoticity. These examples may not be quite right, but they convey the idea: bud /bVd/ vs bird /bV:d/ eh /E/ vs air /E:/ flaw /flO/ vs floor /flO:/ -- Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

Reply

Daniel Prohaska <daniel@...>