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From: ptholfsen@netos.com (Paul Tholfsen)
Subject: Russian & Turkish Vowels
Message-ID: <8a7cc$c253.289@news.questar.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 96 19:37:44 GMT
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I need some help with a phonetic question involving both Russian and Turkish.

What is the correct phonetic description of these two vowels:

1.	The turkish undotted I
2.	The Russian "yeri" that is the vowel in "Bil" (was)

I believe they may both be pronounced the same, but the few texts I've read 
leave me confused:

In "Turkish Grammar" by Underhill, the author states that the Turkish vowel is 
"high, back and unrounded", which would presumably be described by the IPA 
symbol which looks like a rounded script w.

In Fundamentals of Russian by Lunt, he gives the same description as "a back 
vowel pronounced with the tongue in position for the vowel in 'boot', and the 
lips in position for the vowel in 'beet' (i.e. not rounded; this vowel does 
not occur in western European languages).  his sounds exactly like the 
description above.  But Lunt uses the IPA symbol of the slashed i, which is 
used for a high central unrounded vowel.

My own English trained ears and aural processing neurons tell  me that the 
Russian vowel sounds deeper than the Turkish vowel, but I could be wrong.

So, are they the same sound?  If anyone in this group is familiar with the two 
languages, I'd appreciate any help.

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Paul Tholfsen
Bellingham, WA
ptholfsen@netos.com
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