In our alternative spelling forum we often refer to comparing BBC with NBC
English, but the NBC evening newscaster, Tom Brokaw, has noticeable
difficulty with "r"s and "l"s. It's the widow wed wabbit problem (little
red rabbit). Can't go by him on that.
tom z
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Dark-L in American English
>Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 07:32:53 EDT
>
> (JAlso, Beverley S. Collins and Inger M. Mees say in their "The Phonetics
>of (B
> (JEnglish and Dutch" that "American /l/ can strike a speaker of British
>English as (B
> (Jvery similar to /w/, so that 'life' sounds like 'wife'. But at the same
>time (B
> (JI've heard that some RP speakers pronounce "red" and "wed" almost (B
> (Jhomophonously because of their (idiosyncratic) strong lip rounding of
>/r/. If that is (B
> (Jtrue, I'm interested in differences between a velar/pharyngeal /l/
>without tongue (B
> (Jtip contact or lateral air flow and a pharyngealized velar /r/ often
>heard in (B
> (JAmerican English. Do speakers of British English tend to confuse (B
> (Jpronunciations of, say, "life", "wife", and "rife" by Americans? (B
>
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