[Ads-l] "Downsight"

[Herb Stahlke]

I'm curious about what's going on in these final neutralizations.  Lenis
consonants typically devoice finally or when adjacent to a voiceless state,
but this doesn't normally affect the lengthening that typically occurs
before lenes.  What I hear from one colleague in her pronunciation of -ese
words is a shortened vowel with a voiceless consonant, which makes the
consonant sound like a fortis instead of a lenis.  I don't know, though, if
the consonant actually is longer and more strongly articulated, as one
would expect with a fortis.  But this is all impressionistic.  There must
be instrumental evidence available.

Herb

On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 1:42 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Downsight"
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From around the Web:
>
> "... but the high price still remains a _downsight_."
>
>
> Well, it does make since, when you think about it. ;-) Some people don't
> hear any meaningful difference between long vowels and short ones.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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