Re: why can't the BBC

In article <dah7349jjc92jalddlnvq7r60ab3aar8nv@xxxxxxx>,
Ruud Harmsen <realemailonsite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On May 20, 9:51 am, Ruud Harmsen <realemailons...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Couldn't be Barrick, but the last vowel would be a shwa, if Bar is
stressed. That's not the same thing in BrE. (CF. Cher singing
"Memphus" instead in "Memphis": very strange and unlikely to my BrE
influenced ears.

Tue, 20 May 2008 08:35:19 -0700 (PDT): "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx>: in sci.lang:
I have no idea what you're talking about.

That's because you're American, so it's all allophonic to you. Native
speakers don't hear the diffrans.

Barack and Cher are also both American.

"Memphus" and "Memphis" would be pronounced identically.

That's exactly my point. Both have a shwa in the last syllable, but
when pronounced more carefully, as in the song, it turns into the
vowel of thus in AE, and more likely into the vowel of this in BrE.
(Native speakers of either will correct me if necessary).

The vowel of "thus" in American English is mid central, which should
be transcribed by a schwa if following the IPA, but it is, following a
long tradition, typically transcribed by wedge instead (which
represents a *back* vowel in the IPA).

Non-stem-final unstressed vowels in American English, as in the second
syllable of the ordinary pronunciation of "Memphis", are typically
high-central (barred-i in the IPA). (Edward Flemming has done a lot
of work showing this recently.)

However, if a native American English speaker stresses the second
syllable, as would happen when carefully enunciating each syllable, it
can no longer be pronounced with barred-i, because that vowel can't be
stressed in (standard) American English. Barred-i would have to shift
to something, and mid-central is perfectly reasonable (if not
downright typical for Americans), since it can be stressed (as in
"thus") and is phonetically similar.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/
.

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