Re: A considerable strine

Robert Bannister wrote:
CDB wrote:
John Holmes wrote:

No, I don't think so. It's because we say /straIn/ for "strain",
whereas others are used to hearing /streIn/. That's the vowel in
"gate" in the table about half-way down the page:
http://alt-usage-english.org/ipa/ascii_ipa_combined.shtml
It's the a instead of e in the diphthong that makes the
difference, though I don't understand fully why that sounds to
others like an "i" sound.

I spoke as a foreigner, of course, essentially repeating something
I had read, that the distinctive sound of the "long A" and some
other vowels in Australian came from the fact that they start in
the centre of the mouth, in the schwa position, and then glide to
the regular position. I suppose / @e/ isn't a very clear
representation of such a glide.

Speaking as a foreigner, of course I accept your correction.

To my ear, the Australian "ai" diphthong sounds much more like /VI/
than either /eI/ or /aI/ except for Aussies of Italian or Slav
extraction who only seem to be able to pronounce /aI/.

Yes; at least as far as the first part of the sound goes, that's the
same position I was calling the schwa. But then there are English
dialects (I think they are all English) whose version of / V/ sounds,
to a NAmerican like me, like a compromise between / a/ and / @/.

I suppose the difficulty is linked to the fact that, at the level of
accuracy possible on a keyboard, the IPA is partly a phonemic system.


.

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