--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, enlil@... wrote:
> Richard:
> > No, I would have hoped that you remembered that I said 3 chrones
> > but 2 chronemes. Chrone : phone :: chroneme : phoneme.
>
> How are you using chrone in this sentence?
As phonetic vowel length, not yet grouped on the basic of
contrasts. It's just like phone for segmental sound.
The idea of chroneme may not be particularly sound; it assumes that
vowel lengths can be usefully separated from other features. An
example of the sort of problem one might happen occurs in tonemes.
In the Tai-Kadai languages, syllables ending in stops have a
different set of tones to other syllables. (Does the same apply to
Chinese 'dialects' like Cantonese?) Field workers are inconsistent
in identifying tones from the two sets of syllables. With vowel
length, languages may be even more awkward, in that vowel quality
and length fail to be orthogonal.
Richard.