Re: [tied] Re: Pronunciation of "r" - again?

tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
> >..................
> > But I am recounting all aspects of English that make it
> nonconforming among Indo-European languages.  For example, all Indo-
> European languages but English have an "i" that is pronounced like
> our "ee", and "a" is never pronounced /ey/, always "ah" or very
> similar (e.g. with "long" or "short" subvarieties which are not too
> divergent from the "ah" sound), among all other Indo-European
> languages.

Scanian has /aI/ for Swedish and Danish /i:/.
Dutch pronounces vowels with a glide. So does Low German.

-- Okay, here's where my conception that a spelling system can be considered a characteristic of a language gets in the way of my message getting across.  I was trying to say that written "a", of whatever origin, is always close to the "ah" sound in all Indo-European languages but English, and never /ey/ as in English.  And written "i" is always /i/ or /i:/ or /I/, but never /ay/ as in English.  Yes, I know Dutch pronounces /e:/ more as /eI/ and /o:/ more as /oU/, but their /eI/ is written ee or e, not a.  But you all have made it very clear that you do not consider a spelling system a linguistic characteristic of a language, so I withdraw.  I suppose you're trying to tell me that what I'm saying is like saying a person's hairstyle should be considered part of his personality.

Andrew