Re: CHAT: IPA Question

On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 02:35:47AM +1100, Tristan wrote:
[snip]
> >No, no, you don't get it. To *me*, Australian is more "stupid" than
> >American.
> >
> ><flamesuit on> ;-)
> >
> You, presumably, haven't heard of one George W. Bush, or the people who
> voted him in.
Is Australia any better in that respect? Eh? ;-)

[snip]
> >local Canadians say. [f8t] is another alternative. I don't think you can
> >make any generalizations based on spelling, because English pronunciation
> >has drifted so far away from spelling that such generalizations aren't
> >reliable.
> >
> No, true, but it seems you speak one of those dodgy dialects that have a
> stronger correlation between length and voicedness of following
> consonants than mine does.
Australian is pretty deviant by my standards. ;-)

But I hope you realize I was only transcribing Canadian English as I've
picked it up since coming here. If you *really* wanted to know my native
English idiolect sounds like, let's just say, [its5 nAt2 wat2 ju:5 ti:Nk2
la5, ju5 prA1li2 kan2 an5n@5st&n1 it2 &1ni1wei2 ju5no3]. (Numbers are
Hokkien tones; tone 1 = 33, tone 2 = 35, tone 3 = 13, tone 5 = 21.)

Watcha staring at me like that for? You asked for it! :-P

[snip]
> >Well! It's not *my* fault that the first time I heard an Australian
> >greeting, I thought the person said "go die, mite!" ;-)
> >
> Sure it is. I've never heard 'g'day mate' as 'go die, mite', why should
> you?
'cos you hear funny. ;-)

[snip]
> >Aha, Melbourne. Been there, heard that. :-P
> >
> Best city in the land, wouldn't you say? (Note: if you answer
> incorrectly, it will be plainly obvious that you're a happy-snappy
> tourist, and uneducated as well, so I'll be forced to keep your opinions
> in the lowest esteem. Not that I don't already, Australian stupider than
> American indeed...)
LOL... I've only been in Australia for less than a week, so I really can't
say. But of course I was a tourist... who'd want to *live* in such a
weird-speaking country? ;-) (Besides all those New Zealand being boiling
mud jokes, of course. :-P)

[snip]
> >OK, I only have a faint clue what a velarised 'l' might be. I don't think
> >I've encountered it in English. Not that I noticed, anyway.
> >
> Does 'velarized' help any? Some sort of co-articulation happening with
> the velar and the alveolar areas?
LOL... I'm not an American, thank you very much. I spell it "velarised",
but apparently you spell it "veralised". Weird Aussies. ;-)

[snip]
> >Well! How do you tell "been" from "bean" then? At least around these parts
> >the former is [bIn] and the latter is [bi:n].
> >
> Stress, maybe length... the recitation form of 'been' and 'bean' are the
> same, but when spoken in a bunch of other words, one woul be [bin] and
> the other [b@i;n] I guess...
The latter sounds like "bane" to me. :-)

[snip]
> >No, that's more authentic. (In the colonial British sense.) So there! :-P
> >
> Bah, more authentic schmore authentic. Smith's Chips may be the
> original, but Thins are the best. (Not counting things like
> fish-and-chips chips (like french fries, only different for you
> Merkins), pringles, corn chips.)
Heh :-)

[snip]
> The two sounds, though very similar, are different. Trust me. Americans
> (and Canadians, and anyone else who happens to live in that general
> direciton) have a stupid-sounding /&/. I dunno what exactly the
> difference is, but based on the fact that my [e] has run up in
> comparison with your [E], and Kiwi [I] is the equivalent of my [e] (so
> they say nick for neck), and their [e] is the equivalent of my [&] (so
> they say ken for can), it would not suprise me if my [&] was higher than
> yours.
From the way you transcribed your words, it seems that your /&/ is indeed
higher than mine. :-)

> If you followed that, congratulations. If not, I forgive you.
I don't know NZ phonetics, so you've lost me a bit there.

[snip]
> >"American"? LOL... obviously you don't realize that Californians can't
> >understand Bostonians, and both can't understand Texans. And the Kanucks
> >among whom I live despise all three. :-)
> >
> Oh yes, I did realise that, but 'American' refers to that variety of
> American such is heard on both American and Canadian television shows.
[snip]

"I saw it on TV, it must be true!"

;-)


T

--
Philosophy: how to make a career out of daydreaming.

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