bad phonetics makes the Style Invitational

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 21 May 2003, Gordon, Matthew J. wrote:

#It's bad phonologically too assuming the 'she' is an English speaker -
#aren't alveolar nasals unlikely before velar stops given nasal
#assimilation? And when was the last time Chomsky wrote anything about
#phonetics?
#
# >>> >>>She moaned. It was a low, yearnful moan. Not a moan that Chomsky
#would describe as a dental fricative, but more as an alveolar nasal
#followed by a velar stop.
#(Toby Hansen, Lyndhurst, Ohio)

Yes, but I figured most readers of this list would recognize that.
Here's how I originally replied to the sender, with cc to my family:

        >>>>>

Oh my god! The horror! the horror!

Even beyond that:

1. Chomsky is the linguist everyone has heard of. He's not particularly
a phoneticist, which this calls for.

2. Dental fricative: In English, "th" of "think" or "this", neither of
which is anything like a moan.

3. "Alveolar nasal followed by a velar stop": n + k, or n + g. But not
as in "think" or "finger", because the n is explicitly ("alveolar") not
the velar sound you get there. In English you can hear this in "Be
careful wheN Crossing the street" or "A maN Gets tired of that." And not
much more like a moan than a dental fricative is, much less a "yearnful"
one.

        <<<<<

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and
   Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel