Re: Re[6]: [tied] Re: PIE initial *a

--- "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

> At 1:46:55 AM on Thursday, May 15, 2008,
> fournet.arnaud
> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > What about the word father ?
> > Is the <a> not long in all varieties of Modern
> English ?
>
> This is a very complicated matter, actually. In my
> experience phonemic analyses of standard U.S.
> varieties
> don't recognize vowel length as a phonemic feature;
> analyses
> of RP and related varieties, on the other hand, do.
> In
> Scottish Standard English (SSE) vowel length is not
> phonemic, though there is a conditioned length
> distinction.

The English phonology book they use here at the U El
Salvador is based on some type of East Coast English
that makes a difference between a long and short /a/
-- and I believe it has father as long /a/ and bother
as short /a/.