--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Chew <patchew@...> wrote:

> > --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...>

wrote:

> > I just want to be on the record as saying that the difference
> > between vowel pairs in Cree (I am not sure about Tamil) is not
> > really a difference in the length of the vowel but a difference

in

> > vowel quality. They are typically called short and long, but I
> > don't think that is strictly true phonologically.
>
> Phonologically? or phonetically?
>
> Phonologically (as in the *system* contrasts) it would seem

that long

> vs short is valid, whereas the phonetic (surface) realizations are
> manifested by differences in vowel quality. (Other languages that

are

> steretypically cited for this topic are: Hungarian, Cantonese,

Thai,

> other Indic languages, etc... unlike Japanese, which truly has a

timing

> difference in short/long distinctions.)

I just wanted to make it clear that I did not mean "length" in the
sense that Japanese has vowel length. I knew that the difference was
phonemic but as you say not phonetically realized as long and short.
However, I take your point.

Suzanne