Note: Make
sure that you have the Lucida
Sans Unicode font installed in your computer so that the IPA symbols will
display correctly.
The American
'Fishhook':
The following
letter by Larry
Trask was posted over the LINGUIST
discussion list on 9/3/01 (American date order!):
http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2166.html#1
Do
you think it would be OK for an authoritative dictionary to represent an American
tap [ɾ]
('fishhook') as in atom as /d/?
Why or why not? If you don't agree, what do you suggest instead?
Trask
says that the editors of the new Oxford English Dictionary 3 (OED3) want
to avoid using too many special symbols, but want to reflect actual American pronunciation,
and contrast it with RP (Standard Southern British English). What problems and
contradictions are inherent in trying to achieve a "compromise between phonemic
and phonetic transcription", especially when comparing two dialects of the
same language? Think about this question yourself first, then click below to read
Trask's summary of the responses he received:
About the house in Canada:
In
the same post, Trask mentions "Canadian raising". This refers to Canadian
diphthongs which are pronounced differently than in standard American English.
Here is a Website that
explains Canadian raising, with audio files of examples:
http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html
The first vowel [a]
in the diphthongs [aɪ] and [aʊ]
has a mid rather than low tongue position when the diphthong is
followed by a voiceless obstruent (so writer and rider contrast).
Here
are some more audio samples illustrating Canadian raising:
http://www.gazzaro.it/accents/files/CanRaising.html
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Canadian/canphon3.html
Here's a video example of "Weird Al"
Yankovic making fun of pop singer Avril
Lavigne's Canadian raising (and another
video making fun of Canadians).
I personally (and probably most Americans, and
Brits as well) find the "raised" [aɪ] less noticeable
than the raised [aʊ] in running
speech. Can you think of a reason why this might be?
Standard
American and Standard Canadian English sound so similar, it is not very easy
to tell them apart. But you can amaze your friends by identifying a Canadian
with a simple phrase like about the house. (Be warned, however, that
not every native English speaker from Canada exhibits Canadian raising
in their pronunciation; and in fact there are a number of other relatively
small differences).
The same kind of
raising occurs in Standard Scottish English (SSE) as well.
Next:
Airstream
mechanisms and phonation types