Re: non-phonetic english spelling

From: Bart Mathias (mathias_at_hawaii.edu)
Date: 12/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 02:23:38 GMT

Lee Sau Dan wrote:
>>>>>>"John" == John A Rea <j.rea2@insightbb.com> writes:
>
> John> With final voiceless consanants in French, the release,
> John> while resulting in continuing air flow, will be voiceless:
> John> we might label it whispered schwa.
>
> Or a devoiced schwa?
>
> I'm now starting to relate this final tiny sound to the devoiced "u"
> and "i" in Japanese. Aren't they similar?

In what way? The devoiced (or fricated[?], after a fricative) vowels in
Japanese are all lexically "there," not added because consonants have to
be released. In French there are perhaps two kinds, lexical as in, say,
"monde," and rule-derived, as in "cinq."

If you mean phonetically, I'm not that knowledgeable of French
phonetics, but it doesn't sound (bad word?) likely to me.

Bart Mathias

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