LINGUIST List 10.319

Sun Feb 28 1999

Qs: Final Vowel, Koineisation, Codeswitching

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tony A. Wright, Unstressed final vowel
2. Yoshiyuki Asahi, Koineisation
3. Sarah Longstaff, Bilingual codeswitching

I'd like to put a question to phonologists on the list. 

I have recently read a claim that in American English, 
the vowel in the unstressed final syllable of words like "happy",
"pity", "lucky", etc. is an allophone of the vowel phoneme in words like
"sit", "hit",
"lip", etc. To my ear, it sounds unmistakably like the vowel phoneme in
words like "see", "free", etc. 

Out of curiosity, I consulted the pronunciation keys of several
dictionaries for words containing the final unstressed syllable in "happy"
and other similar words. The only dictionary I could find which glossed
this sound as a so-called "short i" (ie., the same as the sound in "sit")
was an abridgment of the Oxford English Dictionary. All of the American
dictionaries listed it as the so-called "long e" (ie., as in "see" or
"free"). 

This makes me feel that the claim I read was an isolated one based perhaps
on British dictionary entries. Could people knowledgeable in American
English phonology give me their opinion privately? I will post a summary
to the list.

Thank you.

- Tony Wright twrightintersatx.net

Dear Linguists,

I am planning to work with the process of koineisation in the new town
setting in Japan from a sociolinguistic perspective.

I am wondering if any of you working with koineisation or language and
variation in the NEW TOWN. If you are, and if you know someone who is
working with this area, I would appreciate it if you can let me know. Also,
if any of you know any relevant references in this area, I would be grateful
if you give me some references.

I have got articles by Kerswill on Milton Keynes and I am hoping that there
are other studies in different parts of the world about language variation
in the new town setting. I would like to know what and how these studies
are going on.

Thanks in advance for your kind consideration and for your prompt reaction.

Yoshi
- -------------------------------
Yoshiyuki Asahi
1-3-44 Hishiya-Nishi, Higashi-Osaka
Osaka 577-0807 Japan
tel:(int'l)81-6-4307-1257/(06)4307-1257
e-mail:yasahima.kcom.ne.jp

Hi,

I am a graduate student in Linguistics and Anthropology at the University
of Arizona. I am interested in finding out about resources on
morpheme-level codemixing. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know,

Thanks,

Sarah