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From: rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Chain Shift (was Tendency of Inflections to Disappear)
Message-ID: <rdd-2607961343260001@dmn1-39.usa1.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 13:43:26 -0500
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <1996Jul23.094214.1@ahecas> <4t7na2$gn1@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu> <zQmc7aAfE$9xEwim@vision25.demon.co.uk> <4tac7o$r22@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu> <rte-2607961224140001@135.25.40.118>
Lines: 25

In article <rte-2607961224140001@135.25.40.118>, rte@elmo.lz.att.com
(Ralph T. Edwards) wrote:

> In article <4tac7o$r22@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu>,
> jlawler@snoopy.ling.lsa.umich.edu (John Lawler) wrote:
> > 
> > >Is there also a /@:/ phoneme, or do "bird" and "bud" sound the same to
> > >Americans?
> 
> No. Bird has an R colored vowel and bud doesn't (for rhotic AE).  The
> pronunciation of bud is very similar to that of most british folk, but
> there is no contrast between the two syllables of abut, so one symbol is
> used.

YES THERE IS! I am an AE speaker and I have always been annoyed by the
assertion that there is (for example) no contrast between the vowels of
"abut", or, in general, that there is only one phoneme represented by the
phones [@] (<u> in "circus") and [V"] (<u> in "tub"). My proof of the fact
that [V"] is not an allophone for schwa is that if it were, "hurry"
['hV"ri] would rhyme with "furry" /'f@ri/. From the obvious observation
that the two words do not rhyme, it follows that there are two separate
vowel phonemes at work. If I had to come up with a minimal pair, I could.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

