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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=135205218-31082005></SPAN>P<SPAN
class=135205218-31082005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=3>atrick,</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=135205218-31082005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=135205218-31082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>You orta have asked him to write </FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>a dissertation based on field testing.
;-)</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=135205218-31082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=135205218-31082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Fritz</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><TT>In my idiolect, as a native speaker of RP (Received
Pronunciation, Southern<BR>British English), "sought" and "sort" are
pronounced identically. I am<BR>non-rhotic.<BR><BR>The "r" in
"sort" adn "bird" is realized differently in different rhotic<BR>accent
of<BR>English --- ranging from retroflex and vowel colour in general American
to<BR>strongly trilled /r/ in some Scottish accents.<BR><BR>Back in the
severites I met a learned professor of English language who was<BR>convinced
he could hear a pronunciation difference between "finish" and<BR>"Finnish" in
RP. Neither I nor A.C. Gimson (who was present, and far better<BR>qualified
than me to make this judgement) could hear any difference in
the<BR>pronunciation of these two words in various contexts. He was
unconvinced.<BR>We wanted to get him into a speech lab and record him saying
things like<BR>"I think the Finnish team will finish in the top three", for
further<BR>analysis.<BR><BR>It's amazing what people can convince themselves
that they hear.<BR><BR>Patrick<BR><BR><BR><BR></TT></BLOCKQUOTE><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
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