On 17/07/18 19:16, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
MRAB <pyt...@mrabarnett.plus.com>:
"ch" usually represents 2 phonemes, basically the sounds of "t"
followed by "sh";
Traditionally, that sound is considered a single phoneme:
<URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affricate_consonant>
To quote the introduction of that article, "It is often difficult to
decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant
pair." I'm afraid your bold assertion is more than a bit arguable.
Can you hear the difference in these expressions:
high chairs
height shares
height chairs
Yes, but then I'm a trained singer.
Try them on an English-speaking person. In a restaurant, ask for a
"height share" and see if they bring you a high chair.
That's a different effect. Listeners will often subconsciously make
small "corrections" to what they hear to bring it into context. It is
particularly noticeable in experiments where one person repeats what
another says while they are still speaking -- effectively simultaneous
translation without the translation part :-) The person repeating will
correct small mistakes in what was originally said without ever noticing
the error. (Google is being annoying and not supplying me with the
information, but I know there have been papers on this.)
The English "tr" sound can also be considered a single affricate
phoneme:
<URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_postalveolar_affricate>
Is there a difference between these expressions:
rye train
right rain
right train
Again, yes. Very much so this time.
--
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd
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