mark by hand (was: the curious phonology of Wisconsin)

Mark A. Mandel mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Wed Nov 24 16:25:35 UTC 2004


 FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US> writes:
   >>>>>
 The beginning is exactly as the English word 'you'.  My American German
speaking friends often rhyme it with 'book', i.e.[U] Sounds very strange to
me.
 <<<<<

That's how I have always pronounced your surname to myself.
/yu:N/ or "yoohng" (the pronunciation you describe) sounds very strange to
me. English syllables ending in /N/ ("ng") always have lax vowels, never
tense vowels. You won't find any of the following, at least in any dialect
I'm familiar with:
 - *eeng with vowel as in Pete /i:N/
 - *ayng " " hate /e:N, eyN/
 - *(eye)ng " " kite /ayN/
 - *ohng " " coat /o:N, owN/
 - *oohng " " you, boot /u:N/ (your pronunciation)
 - *owng " " cow /awN/

I started to include the three heterorganic diphthongs, but I stopped at two
because of the single exception: the onomatopoeia "boing", which I think is
the only example of "oyng" /oyN/.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]



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