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

On Tue, 31 Oct 2000, Eric Christopherson wrote:

> This is something that's been bugging me for a while: My phonetics textbook
> says that in English /i:/ and /u:/ are [iy] and [uw], respectively. It claims
> that these are diphthongs, and the second element is a glide. But how can
> you glide from one sound to the same sound? I thought a glide had to be
> something different from the other vowel (like [ai]), and it's my
> understanding that [y] and [w] are for practical purposes the equivalent to
> [i] and [u], respectively. What gives?
See Kristian's reply to this point. I would add to his excellent
discussion the point that for dialects of English which have falling
diphthongal realizations of /i/ and /u/, the vowels are usually
slightly lower and centralized, so that they may be transcribed [Iy]
and [Uw]. These are clearly diphthongs.

> P.S. Another thing that really annoys me about this textbook, and others I
> have seen, is that it uses the transcription /y/ for IPA /j/, and a few
> other silly things that aren't the same as IPA. On top of that, my professor
> calls *that* transcription system "the international phonetic alphabet"
> which it is not, AFAICS (as far as I can see). *Fume!*
Haven't we been through this before? There is nothing sacred about the
alphabet of the IPA. Its use or non-use in a phonetics text says
nothing about the quality and reliability of the information therein.
If it's the system that your instructor uses, then just learn it; it's
served several generations of linguists well, and it isn't likely to
disappear anytime soon. If you really object to it that much, then
console yourself with the fact that when the semester is over you
won't have to use it anymore.

Lest I sound too harsh, I should add that I'd take the lot of you
(CONLANG subscribers) over the slack-jawed troglodytes that I usually
have in my classes. (Wouldn't you all like to transfer to the
University of Utah? :-) It's refreshing to see students (undergrads
and HS in particular) who are engaged and interested in linguistics.
You are a rare breed, indeed!

Your instructor is definitely wrong in referring to this usage of <y>
as part of the alphabet of the IPA, if that is indeed what he meant. I
try to be very careful to distinguish between "international phonetic
alphabet" and "the alphabet of the IPA (International Phonetic
Association)"; the two phrases are not synonymous, but not everyone
observes the distinction.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu