From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 41425
Date: 2005-10-14
He
likewise claimed that /fa:D&r/ had originated as a compromise between
the free variants /feID&r/ (with open syllable lentgthening) and /faD&r/
(without it). There may be something in this explanation, although it
isn't widely accepted.
-- But I don't see how /fa:D&r/ with a quite back vowel can become a compromise between /feID&r/ and /faD&r/, both with front vowels (even if you are implying with /faD&r/ the more back version of /a/ that some dialects of English have). The latter parenthetic remark brings up a bone I have to pick with traditional English phonetic orthography. Traditionally, English "short a" has always been represented as the ligatured /ae/. But I think that deceives many Europeans (especially Germans and Slavs), who consistently pronounce it as /E/. My recent girlfriend was a recent immigrant from Ukraine and I could never tell whether she was saying "bathroom" or "bedroom". I personally believe that in England this /ae/ is mostly a lot closer to /a/ (based on the IPA description as a "low front", and not central, vowel), and with a majority of people in Canada, except before /n/, /m/, and /r/ in Ontario, where many people say /E&n/ or /I&n/ and /Er/ (I personally hate this pronunciation, since it sounds like a cat meowing, and it can sometimes cause confusion with words with /E/). This phenomenon is also prevalent in the US, where, however, in some areas, they use this diphthong /E&/ in any position. Only a relative minority in the US use plain /E/ for /ae/, I'm pretty sure.Andrew