Re: Not phonetic but ___???
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, April 16, 2004, 18:40 |
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On Fri, Apr 16, 2004 at 01:50:05PM -0400, jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:
> > Amanda
> > Who was very puzzled in elementary school phonics, trying to hear
> > the difference between the o in "ostrich" and the a in "father"
> There probably isn't any in your dialect; practically all Americans
> unround short low back vowels, and many to most Americans unround
> the long ones too. Rounded short low back vowels in an otherwise GA-style
> accent are generally confined to Canadians.
There's more to it than unrounding, though. /O/ didn't merge with /V/,
after all, but with /a/ (which I think is either [a], [6], or [A]
depending on 'lect). In some 'lects that'd be [Q] -> [A], which is a
simple unrounding, but not all.
And what's a "long" low back vowel as opposed to a "short"
one? Quantity isn't phonemic in my 'lect and none of the vowel
qualities that were called "long" in phonics are low and back.
-Mark
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