Re[2]: [tied] -osyo 4 (was: Nominative Loss. A strengthened theory?)

At 10:52:30 PM on Friday, April 23, 2004,
enlil@... wrote:

> Miguel:
>> mettre /mEtr/ "to put"
>> mètre /mE:tr/ "meter"
>> maître /mE::tr/ "master"

> Me:
>>Erh, I have to ask. Who says that besides you?

> Miguel:
>> My French dictionary. Confirmed on sci.lang by Jacques
>> Guy, 5 or 6 years ago, I'd guess.

Believe it or not, the discussion took place in 1996. (I
also thought that it was more recent than that.)

> What "French dictionary" and who the hell is Jacques Guy?

Jacques Guy is a linguist whose native language is French.
He also has an odd sense of humor and a bit of a chip on his
shoulder, but he's quite knowledgeable, capable of making
excellent sense when he chooses to be serious, and certainly
perfectly capable of accurately reporting speech sounds.

> The above three words are homophonous, at least how I and
> many other native francophones would pronounce them. If
> there is any difference in pronunciation, it's a matter of
> the quality of the vowel (a difference between [E] and
> [e]) not vowel length.

One of the things that came out of that discussion was that
there is much local variation. Norman French, for instance,
apparently has a larger vowel inventory than many other
varieties. His Parisian wife does not distinguish <in> and
<un> (though she does distinguish /a:/ in <Jacques> from /a/
in <jatte>).

Brian