Re: -ire words

From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 07/17/04 

Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 00:30:25 GMT

Aaron J. Dinkin wrote:
>
> 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.

A phonetician/South Asianist [species Cambodianist] named Shorto claimed
in an article in (I think) JIPA -- it's typewritten -- that he could
hear morpheme boundaries in words that most people hold are perfect
homonyms in English. A possible example is hangar/hanger (I can't say
whether that was one of his or not). Ca. 1970, I think.

> 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 identify your two nuclei with those two nuclei?

> > 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.

Nope, no wedge in Smith-Trager. You can have either shwa or barred-i.
And, keep the courage of your convictions -- your examples are /tayr/
and /t yr/ (but which is which?). 

-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net
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