Re: Graphemes defined

Robert Wheelock wrote:

>
> --- "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
> wrote:
> > Michael Everson wrote:
> > >
> > > At 17:11 -0400 2004-05-10, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > > >cowan@... wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> Michael Everson scripsit:
> > > >>
> > > >> > Many dialects of English have /x/. You can
> > call English in Wales,
> > > >> > Scotland, and Ireland "contaminated" but I
> > don't think it's right to
> > > >> > do so. The sounds have been there for
> > centuries, and are learned in
> > > >> > infancy by native speakers.
> > > >>
> > > >> Fair enough. |
> > Ya call that English!?
> > > >
> > > >You could have specified Standard English.
> > >
> > > Whose standard? This isn't like an Appalachian
> > village dialect feature.
> >
> > RP? GenAm?
> --Reply--
> Do you mean the fricative /kh/?!?! If you did, my use
> of English also has it, because I read materials
> containing lexical items from languages having this
> particular sound (as well as the rolled versions for
> <r> ...)
> Thank You!

You acknowledge that these lexical items are from other languages! Thus
the alien sounds in them are not part of English.

Here the Firthian notion of coexistent systems of a language's phonology
is useful: a language might have a different set of phonemes
word-finally from what can occur word-initially (e.g. German final
consonant voice neutralization).
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...