Re: "Aren't I?" okay implies "I aren't" okay

bcwordpecker@xxxxxxxxx writes:

On Jun 27, 7:09 pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

The fact that if asked to read "mustn't" and told to
enunciate carefully, you will say /m@s@nt/ is good evidence that
that's what the word actually *is* for you, not merely a phonetic
reduction.

I wouldn't pronounce "mustn't" ['m@s@nt, and with my understanding
of the pronunciaqtion of the schwa I would be surprised to hear
anyone else pronounce it that way.

In my own speech, in careful speech, the unstressed /@/ in this
context is very close to [I] (and I'd entertain arguments that the
word is actually /m@sInt/) and in normal speech it turns into
syllabification of the preceding /n/.

But some people seem to think there's a close similarity between the
sounds [V] and [@],

People like the late Peter Ladefoged, editor of the _Jornal of the
International Phonetic Association_, who in his phonetics textbook
wrote

I have suggested two different symbols, [@] and [V], for the vowel
in "bud" ... Most Americans will have a fairly central vowel [@].
But most speakers of British English will have a vowel of this
quality in "bird," and will use the lower vowel [V] in "bud." Say
the word "above" and note whether the two vowels are approximately
the same. If they are, the most appropriate symbol for both is
[@]. But if you have the same vowel in both syllables of the
phrase "a bird," you should probably transcribe both of them with
[@], and use [V] for the vowel in "bud."

and

I have used [@] for the vowel in "but" for most forms of American
English, restricting the [V] symbol to those forms of English that
distinguish between "bud" and "bird" without using an r-colored
vowel.

This appears in striking form in Merriam-Webster's use of [@] for
both sounds, the only difference being that when [@] is unstressed
it's the schwa and when it's stressed it's the sound I would call
[V].

Do you have any words that you would consider to have [@] in stressed
position or [V] in unstressed position? A minimal pair would be best,
but I'd be interested in any indication that the distribution overlaps
for you.

Does anyone really pronounce [@] like an unstressed [V]?

"Like", certainly. For me, the vowel differences in "above", "abut",
"a bud", or "rub us" are on par with those in "ibid" or "Herbert".

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |If you think health care is
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |expensive now, wait until you see
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |what it costs when it's free.
| P.J. O'Rourke
kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxxx
(650)857-7572

http://www.kirshenbaum.net/


.

Relevant Pages
Loading