Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!gatech!ncar!uchinews!ellis!deb5
From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Catalan /@/
Message-ID: <1995Jan19.023901.26084@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <3fc05h$cir@gordon.enea.se>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 02:39:01 GMT
Lines: 23

In article <3fc05h$cir@gordon.enea.se> sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
[much deleted]
>Sure, unstressed "a" and "e" are never distinguished, but the
>pronounciation is only occassionally [@] but more often [a],
>or at least something which maps to "a" in my ears. The only
>somewhat regular exception is "el" which is usually [@L] with
>[@] seeming to be velarized.

[snip]
>Or have I simply been tricked by the fact that the pronounciation
>when singing is not always the same when talking?

Actually, the surmise that it is a singing pronunciation sounds
intuitively correct.  I've noticed that in formally sung English
and German, the schwas usually become somewhat decentralised, often
tending toward [E].  There could be a similar tendancy on the part
of the Catalan singers, except more toward [a].


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
