How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar

[Randy Alexander]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> I assume, Randy, that when you wrote.
>
> "The vowel in _gate_ (/ei/) and the vowel in _end_ (/E/) are not the
> same phoneme,"
>
> that was meant only for random, unlearned polloi who may be lurking.
> It probably would have been useful for them if you had also provided a
> working definition of _phoneme_.
>

OK.  :)

Phoneme = the smallest abstract unit of speech sound, implicitly understood
between speakers of a given language (across dialects), that can affect
meaning in words.   Phonemes contrast with each other, so different phonemes
in the same environment generally should not have the same sound.

How does that sound?

[I wrote "generally should not" because of course there are some cases where
they do have the same sound for some speakers, as in the well-known:

A: Could you hand me a /pIn/?
B: You mean a stick pin, or a writing pen?]

--
Randy Alexander
Xiamen, China
Blogs:
Manchu studies: http://www.sinoglot.com/manchu
Chinese characters: http://www.sinoglot.com/yuwen
Language in China (group blog): http://www.sinoglot.com/blog

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