xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) (05/26/91)
[Hey, folks, it isn't _that_ hard to give a discussion an appropriate subject line, really; "umlaute" indeed.] holley@sono.uucp (Greg Holley) writes: > btiffany@pbs.org (Bruce) writes: >> OK, five vowels and 14 vowel sounds. >> But if you're talking about the sounds vowels >> make, rather than the vowels themselves, I can't >> believe there are only 14. There must be many, >> many more. Maybe Peter Jennings uses only 14, but >> if you go to Maine, and then to the Appalachians >> of southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky, >> and then to Upstate New York (where they have a >> pretty unique way of pronouncing the sound made >> in words like "about" and "boat"), and then to >> Georgia and Alabama, you'll compile a lot more >> than 14 sounds! Our five vowels truly have many >> talents! >> But there are 5 vowels. :-) > I'd also guess that regional accents tend to > replace one vowel with another, rather than adding > a vowel, so that while English as it is spoken > around the world may include more than 14 vowels, > any native speaker would use 14 or fewer vowels. Wish I could give a reference, but no go. I remember reading, however, that in the Georgia/Alabama area, linguists/phoneticists can reliably distinguish 22 vowel sounds in use by the same speakers. It is only the clipped-speech New Englander that must live with an impoverished 14; I think your hypothesis fails. ;-) Kent, the man from xanth. <xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>
tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.050459.24464@world.std.com> kibo@world.std.com (James 'Kibo' Parry) writes: | My latest linguistics class's textbook specifies twelve basic vowels for | English (plus three diphthongs and no less than thirty consonants, many | of which are featured versions of basic IPA ones and not phonemes) | | English vowels: (sorry, I can't type the IPA on this keyboard. :-)) | bEEt | bAIt This sounds like a diphthong to me (A-EE). | bOOt | bOAt And so does this. (unstressed A-OO). | bAt | bUt | sofA (the schwa -- it's different from "bUt" in that it's unstressed) | bIt | bEt | fOOt | bOUGHt | pOt | | as well as diphthongs, the number of which will vary depending on your | reference. My two most recent linguistics/phonetics textbooks have | specified five and three. (bIte, bOY, and bOUt are in the one I have | handy.) Perhaps the two I highlighted make up the five? Admittedly I am thinking of English English, not American English. Tony. -- Tony Mountifield. | Microware Systems (UK) Ltd. MAIL: tony@mwuk.uucp | Leylands Farm, Nobs Crook, INET: tony%mwuk.uucp@ukc.ac.uk | Colden Common, WINCHESTER, SO21 1TH. UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!mwuk!tony | Tel: 0703 601990 Fax: 0703 601991 **** OS-9, OS-9000 Real Time Systems **** MS-DOS - just say "No!" ****