Re: some more Irish vowels

<ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx> wrote ...
John Atkinson wrote:
"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...

> Phonetically, Mary is most certainly not merry with a centralizing
> glide.

Phonetically, it certainly is, in my dialect. Likewise in RP, and, as
far as I know, other non-rhotic southern Brit.

... and mine. Would you find anything wrong with calling it an [E:]
that's r-colored, the coloring being represented by a rhotic hook?

Definitely not "r-coloured", in the non-rhotic dialects I know of. Some SBrit varieties (e.g., in Wales) certainly have [E:], with no offglide at all. In most there's a centralising and somewhat more open off-glide, in the direction of [@] or [V], but not closing in the direction of [r] AFAICS. At least, no more than occurs at the end of any other vowel followed by a syllable starting with /r/ (like the short vowels of spirit, ferry, carry, sorry, hurry, and the long ones of tarry, story, jury, furry, beery, firey, and no doubt one or two others). There's no rationale for calling this r-coloured any more than calling the same vowels l-coloured or n-coloured when followed by syllables starting with these sounds.

In an attempt to work out what you're getting at, I just consulted Wells

For the GenAm
minority who distinguish <Mary> from both <merry> and <marry>, <Mary>
must be must be regarded phonologically as as /meIri/, with the FACE
vowel, whatever its realization (usually [e] or [e@] )."

Is this right? If not, is it wrong/incomplete/just plain sloppy?

Incomplete, it seems. The "vowel" is *r-colored* (by its juxtaposition
with a bunched r; it's not the same as the diphthong in failing).

Does it start off like [E] (as in SBrit) or [e] (as in Scottish English, and as Wells says)?

John.

.

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