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From: jc@mit-athena.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: "I have it" vs "I have to"
Message-ID: <136@mit-athena.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Mar-85 10:39:43 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-athe.136
Posted: Fri Mar 29 10:39:43 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Apr-85 23:47:54 EST
References: <140@ubvax.UUCP>
Organization: MIT Project Athena
Lines: 22

Hey, I just noticed something curious that might be worth a few
comments from y'all out there.  In the the phrase "I have it",
I pronounce the 'v' voiced; while in "I have to" I pronounce
the 'v' unvoiced. 

This might be considered assimilation, but no: "I have time"
has a voiced 'v'.  Also, if I listen to myself in introspective
mode, it is obvious that my English-generating subroutines 
treat the two meanings as two different words.  They are
homographs; they are spelled the same, but have different
pronunciations and meaning.

Anyone else out there whose native English dialect treats this
differently?  I am a native of the Seattle area, so I suspect
that this is a West-Coastism.  In sloppy-speech mode, I might
add that "I have to ..." comes out "I haftuh ...".  (Boy, would
it be nice if we had IPA symbols in ASCII.)
-- 

			John Chambers [...!decvax!mit-athena]

If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the precipitate.