"long" and "short" vowels

[Tom Zurinskas]

David,  

 

Sorry, I can't hear sounds when I read about them in books.  But Mr. Ladefoged had good instincts, and we can hear him on the internet reciting the sounds on the charts.  He once wrote me back about my position on favoring ~ee as the sound spoken in USA for "ing/ink" tradstreengz rather than short ~i sound.  He agreed and had some testing out in LA from grad students to show this.  

 

For terms used here, any of us can search on them to find the meaning.  Sometimes the wonder is if the user knows the meaning and sometimes the wonder is the meaning itself, because it evolves, like the terms "long and short" for vowels.

 

Why do folks say "human" speech?  Can we just say "speech" and assume it's human?

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+ 
see truespel.com


 

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject: Re: "long" and "short" vowels
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > somebody left unattributed wrote:
> 
> >> Yes, long [a] interpreted *quantitatively* (often
> >> represented as [a:] is pronounced with the same
> >> tongue position as short "a", but just prolonged.
> 
> > So you're saying "mate" and "mat" vowels have the same tongue
> > position (I think close but not same). And you say "mate" vowel
> > takes longer to say than "mat" (I say them over and over and they
> > seem the same). This is quantitative, somehow? (time measure and
> > physical tongue location?)
> 
> Tom, please, *please*, PLEASE go get a copy of Peter Ladefoged's _A
> Course in Phonetics_ and give it a good read-through. It's short, and
> someone like you who's interested in the sounds of human speech should
> be able to hang with it, even the more technical bits--and it would
> really help avoid these talking-past-each-other moments. So, please?
> 
> --
> 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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