Mom - You are the greatest and thank you for putting up with the utter chaos I caused at times. Hope you have an utterly outstanding day. I love you.
P.S. "Udder" and "utter" are only homophones on the surface level.
Phonemic Level---------------------Allophonic Level
(underlying transcription)---------- (surface translation)
udder
/ʌdɚ/----------------------------------[ʌDɚ]
utter
/ʌtɚ/-----------------------------------[ʌDɚ]
The American English phonology rule for flapping states that alveolar stops are flapped intervocalically when followed by an unstressed vowel.
6 comments:
do the British say [ʌtʌ]?
I don't know if you have posted this little Calvin & Hobbes toon on your blog before, but I really wanted to share!
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f88340115706740f4970b-800wi
Hi Lidz,
I believe the British would say [ʌDə] because the second syllable is not stressed and the schwa indicates the lack of stress.
Thanks for sharing the cartoon. I have seen it and I love it. Will definitely post it sometime because I have talked about the verbing of nouns before.
http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/search?q=verbing+nouns
Hi!
I have a general phonetics & phonology exam on Friday! Aaargh! No - it should be fine!
But you know how here you've said that 'udder' and 'utter' are only homophones on the surface level (in American English). Well, I can see that the rule makes sense, but how would you go about proving that they are not the same at phonemic level?
Thanks!
Amber (Manchester, UK)
Good question Amber M. I guess I would say that when you are transcribing at the underlying level, you are transcribing the individual sounds based on the standard spelling/sound interface. It is only when transcribing at the surface level that the neighboring sounds come into play, thus the flapping rule is applied.
Aha, thank you. The exam went well by the way!
Love your blog, keep it up!
(I've just noticed that's a bit ambiguous in itself!)
Amber (UK)
Congrats Amber; glad the exam went well.
Thank you for the compliment, I think I will keep it UP.
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