Re: -ire words

From: Aaron J. Dinkin (dinkin_at_babel.ling.upenn.edu)
Date: 07/16/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 23:21:30 +0000 (UTC)

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:30:31 GMT, Peter T. Daniels <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Aaron J. Dinkin wrote:
>>
>> "tire" and "tire" have no other difference.
>
> Say it once more and it's true ... if these two words are pronounced
> differently, and the difference is in the vowel quality, then you have
> identified a phonemic contrast unknown to linguistic science.

I know... that's what worries me. Or in particular, what worries me is
that it's a phonemic contrast that I'm completely non-cognizant of in my
conscious awareness of my own pronunciation; and it doesn't fit easily
into the phonemic system I had working-hypothesized for my own accent.

Didn't someone in a.u.e and sci.lang propose this phonemic constrast for
his own accent several weeks ago, on the basis of "writer" and "rider"
(rather than have to interpret [*] as /t/ in one word and /d/ in the other).

> Can you fit it into the Smith-Trager 36 syllabic nuclei?

I guess so. It'd be "wire" /wayr/ and "fire" /fVyr/, where /V/ denotes
the wedge. That fits, right? But I'm not happy with it.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom