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

On Fri, Nov 03, 2000 at 04:53:06PM -0000, And Rosta wrote:
> While Dirk is of course right that Eric's instructor is wrong (and
> would have me fuming too), in defence of Eric's instructor it should
> be remembered that the probability is that Eric's classmates are
> comparable to Dirk's slack jawed troglodytes [which, based on my own
> experience in teaching, should be glossed as "ordinary people,
> common-or-garden average students"], and the instructor may be
> striving to keep things simple even at the cost of being a bit wrong.
> The average teacher of Lx, who does not have a class full of students
> of the calibre of Conlang subscribers, has to choose between giving
> priority to teaching the students *something*, even if it is wrong,
> (which is good for students' morale), or giving priority to trying to
> teach only what is reasonably right, even if as a consequence some
> students fail to learn anything. Among Lx teachers I know, I'm
> relatively unusual in inclining towards the latter strategy,
> believing that it is better to know that you don't know something
> than to think you know something (but which is in fact wrong).

Well, in all honesty *I* think he's a good teacher, but none of my
classmates do; they all seem to be doing somehwat between dismally to
terribly in the class, unfortunately. I feel kind of guilty that I already
knew almost all of what we've gone over so far, but I have offered to help
them, so they can take it or leave it :)

Anyway, I'm not all *that* annoyed really about the use of the glyphs /y/
and [y] or about his saying they're from the international phonetic
alphabet.

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo