Re: THEORY: [i:]=[ij]? (was Re: Pronouncing "Boreanesia")

Eric Christopherson sikayal:

> On Thu, Nov 02, 2000 at 02:00:27PM -0800, jesse stephen bangs wrote:
> > On the contrary, I find [IN] to be illegal, and
> > "ying," sing," "ring," etc. all have [i].  But all of my vowels misbehave
> > before [N]--"hang" is [hE~N], *not* [h&~N], as some people have it.
>
> I still don't know how to classify /{N/ (that's X-SAMPA for your /&N/) and /{g/
> in my idiolect/dialect. I just know that the vowel in both of those combos
> is the same, and that it is not exactly [{] and not exactly [E]. I think it
> has some sort of off-glide, but I don't know exactly what it is. Maybe
> something like [{i].
Actually, the more I listen to myself the more I think that my
pronounciation is like yours, at least somewhat.  In "sing" I definitely
say [siN], possibly with a final [j] glide: [sijN].  However, "hang" is
harder; I don't *exactly* say [E], the vowel is slightly retracted and
lowered, but not as low as [&] (ash).  This is definitely an allophonic
feature, though, and not a phoneme.

BUT, I don't think that /N/ is a phoneme.  I've tried to convince my
linguistics teacher that every instance of [N] in my idiolect can be
explained by the rules:

/n/ > [N] / __{k/g}
/g/ > 0 / N__#

where # indicates a morpheme boundary.  Thus, "sing" is underlying
/sing/; "ringer" is ['riNr=] because of the morpheme boundary
/ring#+er/; "finger" is [fiNgr=] because it's a single morpheme.  Does any
one (read: Dirk) care to disagree?

>
> My dialect is from southern Wisconsin, in case anyone
> was wondering; one time I was listening to the radio when a woman called in,
> and the DJ (apparently an Illinoisan) said he could tell she was from
> Wisconsin because of how she pronounced /{g/. I have noticed other people
> around here using a more straightforward [{g] or maybe [{:g], but the
> difference doesn't seem to have anything to do with what side of the state
> line they're from.
>
> --
> Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo
>
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_