vocalic m, r, n, and l

[Tom Zurinskas]

I don't understand the "vocalized consonant concept". To me it means "yeah there's a vowel involved but we don't know what it is so we don't put anything there." To me I hear sample word in the talking dicitionaries and put in a vowel when I hear one.

At the thefreedicitonary.com I hear for the 3 voices:

rhythm US ~rithum, UK ~rithim icon ~rithoom (~oo as in wool)

rifle US ~riefool UK ~riefool icon ~riefool (~ool as in wool)

butter US ~buder UK ~butu icon ~buter (~u as in up)

something US ~sumthheeng UK ~sumthheeng icon ~sumthheeng
(~thh is unvoiced th, ~ee is as in seen)
(granted ~sumthhin is common)

Using a vocalize consonant phonetic depiction is also a problem because it hides the fact that there is a syllable there. In truespel without them I can say that every syllable has a vowel.

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk









> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:15:21 -0400
> From: ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject: vocalic m, r, n, and l
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Ronald Butters <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
> Subject: vocalic m, r, n, and l
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Maybe in slow and somewhat artificial speech, Tom, but otherwise it =
> makes a good deal of sense to see /m/ as the vowel in <rhythm>-- as also =
> the /l/ in <rifle>, the /r/ in <butter>, and the /n/ in <somethin' > =
> (and also when it is pronounced as if it were spelled <sunthin>--and =
> with the glottal-stop pronunciation [s@?n], where @ =3D a nasalized =
> schwa and N is a syllabically realized /n/).
>
> On Mar 20, 2012, at 5:49 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
> > My take is that the word "rhythm" phonetically has two vowels ~rithim, =
> like "prism" ~prizim, but not film ~film (although my father used to say =
> ~filim).
> >=20
> > Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
> > See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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