ah/ awe

David Bowie db.list at PMPKN.NET
Mon Oct 2 14:10:56 UTC 2006


From:    Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>> From: sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>

>> Tom, would you wipe out all dialectal differences in pursuit of this
>> pronounce-as-spelled campaign?  How would you deal, e.g., with the
>> diphthongal i with which most northerners pronounce /light, sight, might/,
>> &c?

> I'm not familiar with that dipthong.  In m-w.com those words above do not
> have vowels that are two-phthongs to me.

The standard pronunciations of the vowels in those words are
diphthongs--in fact, pronouncing those vowels with monophthongs is
rather markedly non-standard. I'm starting to become very curious as to
where your assumptions about the technicalities of English pronunciation
come from.

<snip>

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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