I got diphthongs out the gazoo!

[Dennis R. Preston]

Herb,

Assuming you are not counting the phoney [ij], [ej], [uw], and [ow],
I know of your [ay], [aw], [Oj], and (perhaps) [Iw] (if you really do
say "Tuesday" and "news" that way). I can't find your fifth.

But you must suspect that my losses of [aj] ("night" is nearly
homophonous with "not") and [Oj] ("oil" is nearly homophonous with
"all") have somehow reduced my diphthongal inventory, while, in fact,
my number so far outstrips yours as to leave you panting on the
tundra you call home:

[aj] as in bait
[ej] as in beat
[i@] as in bit (@ = schwa)
[e@] as in bet
[aej] as in bat
[aew] as in bout
[aw] as bought

This without referring to the fact that with drawling any monophthong
can be made a diphthong and the above diphthongs can all be made
triphthongal.

Stick with low front vowel raising. You out of your league when it
comes to thonging.

dInIs







>Naah.  I've got five diphthongs to your three.
>
>Herb
>>
>>  Nonsense; you've conflated the vowels of "hoarse" and "horse" and
>>  haven't distinguished /w/ from /hw/ for decades or more. Moral
>>  superiority in phoneme-counting and/or partial neutralization is only
>>  a figment of the self-important Michigan esteem for its own deficient
>>  dialect.
>>
>>  dInIs
>>
>>
>>  >----- Original Message -----
>>  >From: "Dennis R. Preston"
>>  >
>>  >>  Definitely not an archiphoneme (though it warms my heart to see the
>>  >>  word early on Saturday morning). Not all neutralization is
>>  >>  archiphonemic. In this case the merger of /O/ and /a/ (as in most
>>  >>  western US dialects, Eastern New England and a growing band across
>>  >>  the Midland) does not result in an archiphoneme; it simply results in
>>  >>  phoneme loss. I have one more phoneme than such speakers (and clearly
>>  >>  a great deal of moral superiority by possessing it).
>>  >
>>  >One more phoneme!  What moral superiority!  I guess since my SE Mich
>dialect
>>  >has phonemicized Canadian Raising before /d/, /nd/, and in open
>syllables,
>>  >and I don't have the /O/  /a/ merger, your moral superiority is trumped.
>>  >Don't mess with native Michiganders.
>>  >
>>  >Herb
>>
>>  --
>>  Dennis R. Preston
>>  Professor of Linguistics
>>  Department of Linguistics and Languages
>>  740 Wells Hall A
>>  Michigan State University
>>  East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>>  Office - (517) 353-0740
>>  Fax - (517) 432-2736

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736