kibo@world.std.com (James 'Kibo' Parry) (05/27/91)
In article <1991May26.160855.7374@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: >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. ;-) It could also depend on whether or not you count diphthongs. 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 bOOt bOAt 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.) Normally, a regional accent can be done using any of those--a vowel will mutate into another (or two others), be omitted, or be spoken with non-standard features (nasality, etc.) For instance, my "bOUGHt" changes to rhyme with "pOt", my "bAt" is nasal, etc. (You can always spot an Emerson college graduate by the way they know the International Phonetic Alphabet. Undergraduates are required to take a speech course that beats you over the head with phonetics and one other speaking course. The upshot of this is that if we want to be newscasters we know how to say "nyews" instead of "nooz", if we want to be actors we can do a Swedish accent by learning our lines phonetically, or if we're in completely unrelated majors like I was, we get annoyed. The courses are nice if you want to get rid of an accent, or talk like Adam West, also.) -- Kibo "Nancy, hand the man the dandy candy." Of course, the sci.lang people can probably tell you many zillions times as much about phonetics as wimpy li'l moi can. -- James "Kibo" Parry kibo@rpi.edu 132 Beacon St. #213, Boston, MA 02116 (617) 262-3922