vocalic m, r, n, and l

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/20/2012 01:15 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:
>Maybe in slow and somewhat artificial speech, Tom, but otherwise it
>makes a good deal of sense to see /m/ as the vowel in <rhythm>-- as
>also the /l/ in <rifle>, the /r/ in <butter>, ...

Which are the vowels and which the consonants in "butter" (R
pronounced) vs. "butta"?  (I do not say the latter; I always speak
slowly and some on this list have said somewhat artificially.)  How
many phonemes does each contain?  Are they a minimal pair?

Joel

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