Re: Long vs. short vowels in English

From: John Atkinson (johnacko_at_bigpond.com)
Date: 07/20/04 

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:19:56 GMT

"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote...

> Mxsmanic wrote:
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels writes:
> >
> > > Presence of a strong accent impedes understandability considerably.
> >
> > Not when all phonemic distinctions are resolved, by definition.
>
> You are simply wrong. Have you ever tried communicating with a
> Spanish-speaking New Yorker with English as their second language?

The main reason for incomprehensibility of foreign accents (including, I'm
sure, this example) involves failure to acquire the appropriate type and
pattern of stress. Incorrect phonemisation, even failure to acquire certain
sounds at all, is a very minor source of problems in comprehension.

> > > "Elimination" of a foreign accent in an adult is impossible.
> >
> > I've seen examples that prove this assertion to be untrue.
>
> "Seen"? Have you ever heard any?
>
> > > Reduction of an accent by a significant, considerable, amount
> > > is possible and desirable.

This last is correct, of course. "Elimination" is a silly word to use in
this context.

> > It is only necessary to reduce it enough to resolve the aforementioned
> > phonemic distinctions.

As stated above, if you're going to be satisfied with workable production
and understanding, all this back-and-forth about "phonemic distinctions" is
pretty much beside the point.

John.