Re: Pronunciation ...

[Christopher Reid Palmer <reid@pconline.com>]

BestATN@aol.com wrote:

> >        /u/   boot, toot, flute, chute
> >        /o/   top, cot, motley, monster
> >        /i/   clean, green, machine
> >        /e/   bet, lens, enemy
> >        /a/   cat, bat, mat, dab, action
> 
> As examples of tense vowels I would agree with the linguist,

Actually, no. Those are not tense /e/s, and low vowels (at least in
English) like /a/ are underspecified for tenseness (which means that
native speakers would not consider them two different words if you
pronounced 'cat' with a tense /a/ and then a lax /a/).

For my Midwestern American English, the /o/ and /a/ above are both low
vowels, mid-back and front, respectively.


-- Chris

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Christopher Reid Palmer : reid@pconline.com : http://innerfire.visi.com/