LINGUIST List 14.3368

Sun Dec 7 2003

Disc: New: RE: Media: NYT: Texas Accent

Editor for this issue: Sarah Murray <sarahlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Jack Hall, Re: 14.3301, Media: NYT: Texas Accent

Message 1: Re: 14.3301, Media: NYT: Texas Accent

This NYT story perpetuates the common and totally false phonetic
transcription of the vocalic in "ride" as "ah." That would mean that
word rhymes with "rod", which it certainly does not. Does anybody know
if there is an internationally (or widely) accepted transcription of
that vowel in the speech of most southerners in the United States? It
is a monophthong and occurs before voiced sounds and before nothing,
in contrast to the diphthong [ai] which occurs before voiceless
sounds. It occurs in "ride" and "rhyme" and "rye", whereas the
diphthong occurs in "right" and "rice."

Jack