(JDear Colleague, (B
(JI forward the following message on behalf of Karen Steffen Chung: (B
(J> My contention is that in USA English the vowel in "ink" as in words, "ink, (B
(Jsink, think", is actually a "long e" which in truespel is "eenk seenk (B
(Jthheenk" (where "thh" is "unvoiced th"). What do linquists think? Go to (B
(Jm-w.com and click on icon to hear the words. What do you think? Surely (B
(Jin/ink, sin/sink, and thin/think have different vowels. (Listen in m-w.com) (B
(J Let me know where you're from. (B
(J This question came up over the LINGUIST list not long ago. I would (B
(Jposit short /I/ as the underlying phoneme, which is raised allophonically (B
(J(i.e. it gets closer to [i], but it isn't as high - that's why it's so hard (B
(Jto decide if it's [I] or [i]) before voiced velar consonants (/g/ and /N/) (B
(Jin General American and RP. The same thing happens with /ae/ and /E/, (B
(Jwhich are both raised, in the direction of [e]. Not all dialects have this, (B
(Je.g. New York, and New Zealand English. (B
(JSee http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/ (B~ (Jkarchung/intro%20page%2015.htm (B
(JThe page includes sound files of this phenomenon for all three phonemes (B
(Jplus links to the original LINGUIST postings. (B
(J Karen Steffen Chung (B
(J http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/ (B~ (Jkarchung/ (B
(J http://www.topica.com/lists/phonetics/ (B
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