Re: Is "oo" a diphthong?

From: Adrian Bailey (dadge_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 01/11/05 

Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:30:03 GMT

"Mark Barratt" <nyelvmark@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1105462146.650231.210110@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Although my early training in French gave me what still passes as a
> plausible French accent, I've always been prone to trip up over the
> distinction between the vowels in the words "tu" and "tout". In
> practice, it's rarely been a problem. Context, as I'm sure we all
> know, is king in matters of dubious pronunciation.
>
> It was when I began to study Dutch, and found that I had a similar
> problem between the Dutch sounds "u" and "oe" that I began to worry
> more about this problem. Why was it that I was unable to distinguish
> these sounds in hearing? With concentration, I could distinguish them
> in speaking by thinking about the positions of my tongue and lips, but
> since I couldn't *hear* the difference, I was never consistent in
> natural speech.

If a particular phonemic distinction does not exist in one's own language,
it can be very hard to distinguish it in another language. Thus (to
generalise) the Japanese can't hear the difference between English "r" and
"l", and Germans (Hungarians, the French, ...) can't hear the difference
between English "oh" and "aw" (e.g. bowl/ball). If one can't hear a
difference, it can't be reproduced in speech. English vowels are almost all
different from the vowels used in other languages, so there's lots of room
for mutual difficulty.

> It is consideration of this front-vowel versus back-vowel distinction
> which has finally given me a handle on my problem. The problem I have
> with the French "tu" and "tout" is that they both, to my English ear,
> sound like the word "too" (or "two", if you prefer). So, I asked
> myself, does my "too" contain a back-vowel or a front-vowel?
>
> The answer, when I listened to myself say it, surprised me. It's both.
> A diphthong, in other words,

It should be pointed out that it's possible for a vowel to be "both", ie.
between the front and the back, without being a diphthong.

> starting as an unrounded back vowel and
> finishing as a rounded front vowel. Of course, the well-known
> shortening of vowels before fortis ("unvoiced") consonants means that
> in words such as "boot", "loop", "loose" the fronting and rounding are
> minimal and may be hard to discern; whereas in "boon", "mood", "lose"
> they are clearly evident (a similar phenomenon is observable with the
> normally acknowledged English diphthongs).
>
> So, I'm left with a question. I was brought up in Bournemouth, which is
> just about in the centre of England's south coast. People that I meet
> from other parts of England tell me that my accent sounds "West
> Country" i.e. reminiscent of that of speakers from the southwest corner
> of England, especially Devon and Cornwall. True natives of those
> regions, however, are rhotic, which I am not. I think I've pinned this
> perception down to my pronunciation of some vowels, especially the
> diphthongs.
>
> Is this diphtongized pronunciation of the vowel in "too", "whom",
> "rude", "booze" a peculiarity of my local accent (or maybe even of my
> ideolect)?

I'd say that it is.

BUEK,
Adrian

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