English in USA

[Tom Zurinskas]

>From: Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>
>Quoting Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>:
>
> > Right.  Call a friend that is not a linguist, a normal person.  Say
>"which
> > two words have the same sounding vowel.
>
>Interesting strategy: ask those who are not trained to note the difference
>between phonology and and phonetics--phoneme and phone--to identify the
>sounds.
>  If you ask most people how to make 'dog' and 'cat' plural you'll get
>almost
>everyone to say that you add the same sound: an 's'.  We know that's not
>true.

Basically, I'm thinking we need unbiased opinion.  Linguists are exposed to
phonetic notation  that could affect judgment.  Regarding plural "s", better
talk to Pres. Bush.  He tradnounces those s's as ~s, not ~z.

> > Then say sin, seen, sing. If you
> > say these words as m-w.com says them (the voice not the notation), they
> > should say "sin" is different if I'm right.  Do it with band,bank,bang
>and
> > ask if any vowel is different. If I'm right band is different.
>
>Again--It's one thing to argue perception and another to argue phonetics.
>having listened to the vowels several times I do hear an effect of the
>following
>nasal on the preceding vowel, but I don't agree that the vowels are raised.
>  a
>nasalized vowel (as in 'sing') is not necessarily a high vowel (as in
>'see').  A
>  nasal/diphthongized [ae] ('sang') is not the same as a +ATR mid-front
>vowel [e]
>('stare').
>
>Michael

Michael, you'll have to tell me how phonetics is different from perception.
It's all perception.

I have the words "stare,stand,stank" as three separate vowel phonemes in my
truespel notation:  ~stair,~stand,~staenk (where ~ae stands for long a as in
"manger" ~maenjer.)

PS.  Thanks for the background below.  Coming from mid America you might be
an awe dropper.  No?  I assume the stressed syllable in your name is "rrub".
  No?

>
>USA - MI4, OH3, MD3, MI13, ND5, MI3, IN1+

_________________________________________________________________
Get the latest Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Beta version. Join now.
http://ideas.live.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org