dot-calm

[Mark A. Mandel]

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> writes:
>>>
I distinguish [dot] com from calm -- the latter is (speaking as a
layman in phonetics) longer (but for me, without an L).  I also
distinguish cot from caught.  But I also distinguish both of the
latter two from either of the former two.

I don't know if these are phonemic distinctions for me -- I don't
want to search for minimal pairs from com and calm to cot (my caught
is sufficiently different) -- but at least I hear them differently
when I speak them.
<<<

It doesn't take a minimal pair to decide that two phones are different
phonemes. English voiced and voiceless <th> (/th, dh/) should be distinct in
any analysis even without such marginal minimal pairs as "thy/thigh" and
"this'll/thistle". So would /sh, zh/ (do those two have any minimal pairs at
all?). Why? Because the feature of voice is so pervasive in English
phonology.

m a m

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