On 23 January 2011 18:04, Luke Bergen
<lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
I see what you mean now timos about how it's bad idea to talk about pronunciations in terms of english words. Just because I pronounce pie and pipe like {pai} and {pyip} does not mean that all americans do the same. In fact, according to the abstract in the paper that Oren found, I may very well be in the minority.
You are the first person I've ever heard of who pronounces "pipe" like [ˈpəip]. If you really do pronounce it like you say you do then what you're saying is a two-syllable word, so are you sure that what you're saying is not actually [ˈpəjp] or [ˈpəːjp]? Nevertheless, a schwa in the pronunciation of "pipe" is extremely unusual, more so because in English schwa is never stressed, and the syllable in "pipe" is a stressed syllable. The usual pronunciation of the word is [ˈpajp] or [ˈpaːjp].
Well, I'm off to learn IPA