dot-calm

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:32 AM -0500 1/2/07, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
>"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?).

mesher/measure
(if you allow the former)

>Why? Because the feature of voice is so pervasive in English
>phonology.
>
>m a m
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org