Re: Redefining [a] and [æ]? or using a better vowel quadrilateral?

In article
<79d8e47f-c17a-4dae-a5a6-0d4a6d900de1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx" <ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 28, 12:29 am, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<3cce5d4d-530d-4c1c-aabb-6c340fac3...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

"ranjit_math...@xxxxxxxxx" <ranjit_math...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 27, 10:33 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If I were Supreme Commander of the IPA, I would adopt Kirschenbaum's
usage of [a] as central, and move [æ] down to the low-front corner.
This is pretty much standard practice anyway, even for linguists who
otherwise adhere pretty strictly to the IPA.

How would you distinguish between pat [p&t], putt [pVt] and pot [pat]
(American pronunciation) with just these two symbols?

I would retain <script-a> for a low back vowel, so I'd use [pæt] and
[p<script-a>t] for the "pat" and "pot". (I'm assuming we're not
talking about Northern Cities Shifted dialects.)

Not just shifted; also non-rhotic in various contexts. RFK didn't
pronounce dot and dart the same way; yet, you'd have a <script-a> in
transcriptions of both.

Bostonian "dart" is [dat], not [d<script-a>t].

For "putt", I'd use either [p<turned-v>t] (the usual practice, which
doesn't match the IPA) or [p<schwa>t] (a more IPA-accurate
transcription, but it makes some people uneasy because they want to
keep it separate from the first vowel in "about").

The same vowel at the beginning and end of America makes me uneasy;
the former seems a little more closed than central and the latter a
little more open. But then, this might be because the two qualities
are orthographically (and possibly phonemically) distinct in
Malayalam.

Raising of schwa is a well-studied phenomena (generally speaking,
word-final schwa raises). In a narrow transcription, this raising
could be transcribed if desired (usually with [<barred-i>]). In a
broad transcription that ignores schwa-raising, [<schwa>] can be used
for both vowels.

The vowel in "putt" is in complementary distribution with the first
vowel in "about"; the former is always stressed, the latter is never
stressed. They are also articulatorily and acoustically similar. So,
they are good candidates for being represented by the same symbol,
especially in phonemic transcriptions.

The problem with /@/ also meaning an open central vowel realization is
that it cam convey odd/incorrect impressions such as that "police" has
an open central vowel which it doesn't.

"Putt" doesn't have an open vowel, at least not for me (my vowels are
pretty close to what is considered general American). My
pronunciation of "putt" has an F1 of about 650 Hz; for "pot", my F1 is
about 760 Hz. In comparison, my F1 for "pet" is about 610 Hz, so my
"putt" is much closer in height to "pet" than it is to "pot".

(And on the issue of unstressed/stressed schwa, my F1 for the final
vowel of "America" is about 630 Hz, basically the same as for "putt".)

As for "police", it would be dealt with in the same way other cases of
schwa-raising are dealt with: narrowly transcribed with a higher
vowel, or ignored if schwa-raising is relevant.

What you ultimately decide to do depends on the purpose of the
transcription. There is no single universal correct transcription,
nor is there such a thing as perfectly narrow transcription. If you
really want something more narrow than what the IPA or other
glyph-based transcription system can do, you give the information
quantitatively, with formant values, spectrograms, etc.

Nathan

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

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