Re: USAGE: No rants! (USAGE: di"f"thong)

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Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:

> On 31/05/06, Paul Roser <pkroser@...> wrote:
> ...
>> Even making English spelling more phonemic would require picking one
>> dialect
>> over another - and which do we choose? Standard American? RP? Scots?
>> ANZAC?
>> Canadian? Caribbean? South Asian? Shanghai/Hong Kong?
>
> In spite of the fact that non-Anzacs can't hear the difference between
> Kiwi and Aussie accents (in spite of the fact that it's really
> obvious), for the purposes of developing an orthography, they are
> different.
Really? I would have thought the differences would be pretty obvious.
You can do a pretty good parody of a Kiwi accent simply by turning most
of the vowels into the vowels into schwas, and taking any diphthongs,
turning most of them into vowels, and then shortening, fronting and
raising. Stress isn't as strong--to my ear--in NZ English as it is in
Aus. English, which, combined with longer dipthongs and vowels, gives
Australian English its distinctive sound.

> Sounds awful to my ears).
I agree!

K. -- Who learned everything he knows about the Kiwi accent from having
      to sit through far too many episodes of Shortland Street.

- --
Keith Gaughan | http://talideon.com/
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
    -- Leonardo Da Vinci (attributed)
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