The explanation (which I find convincing, but your mileage may vary) is that the puff of air is *unvoiced*, whereas all vowels are, by definition, voiced to some extent. If you try the hand-over-mouth experiment with the word "peak", for

Not exactly RP, but I say /'kA.v@ntSrI/ ("cot" vowel). You actually have *phonemic*, not just phonetic, /S/ here? Someone just asked about = /tSrai/ in misc.education.language.english; I thought they were probably just hearing some

What's the modern RP way of saying "Coventry"? I ... but if I did, "Cuvventry" is what I would say. Not exactly RP, but I say /'kA.v@ntSrI/ ("cot" vowel). You actually have *phonemic*, not just phonetic, /S/

On 11-Aug-2004, Mxsmanic (Email Removed) wrote in message (Email Removed): It is not true for English in Los Angeles, where ... same phonetic length; the difference is almost entirely in quality. I agree; I've noticed the same thing in

It is not true for English in Los Angeles, where tsj says he is, that "/i/ is usually long and ... pretty sure. /i/ and /I/ here have very nearly the same phonetic length; the difference is almost entirely in quality. I agree; I've

On 10-Aug-2004, Mxsmanic (Email Removed) wrote in message (Email Removed): The length of vowels in English is not phonemic; that is, you can be understood whether you pronounce vowels long ... In English, /i/ is usually long and /I/ is usually

I don't see why. Other languages have no problem with ... English is, as we all know, already far from phonetic. Just out of curiosity...which languages are you thinking of? Well, the obvious are languages that have different literary and

In a prefixed word I might say ('sEmi) or ('hEmi) ... ("semuh" or "hemuh"), as in "hemisphere" ('hEm@,sfIr) and "semicircle" ('sEm@,s@rkl-). I use the schwa in "hemisphere", but in

Well, because American dictionaries typically don't give strict phonetic prescriptions; rather, the pronunciation descriptions given by American dictionaries are generally ... same vowel as "pet" and "get", and that is as

I don't necessarily agree with this. "Dictionaries describe the most *usual* pronunciation"?? What does "most usual" mean? The densest and ... There are a great many people in the South that pronounce "help" as