Re: Monosyllables (was Re: Alphabets (was Re: Bill Gates))

Michael Butler (mmb@best.com)
Tue, 7 Oct 1997 14:22:05 -0700 (PDT)


On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Wesley Schwein wrote:

> > Nine letters, seven phonemes, one syllable.
>
> Well, 9 letters and 1 syllable but 5 phonemes. The <tch> sound can be

Sorry, it seems we both miscounted.

I pronounce "scratched"
S K R A' CH T
...which is six phonemes, no?

> broken down into [t] and [sh], but /tsh/ is one phoneme in English (and
> Itallian and Spanish, but two in German and French --it depends on whether
> the sound came from two syllables meeting or from one sound at an earlier
> point in the development of the language.

You're right, I did miscount the T and CH as sounded separately when, in
fact, they are not sounded separately in the specified words.

> <e> in the verb inflection isn't pronounced.

Yep, true.

Anyway, my apologies for bringing the digression back to the list for its
conclusion.

MMB