Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4552 comp.cog-eng:1128 sci.psychology:1908
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!minya!jc
From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Spelling and Perceptual Mode (was: Effects of poor writing?)
Message-ID: <1@minya.UUCP>
Date: 17 May 89 17:03:21 GMT
References: <135@minya.UUCP> <3936@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: (none)
Lines: 38

In article <3936@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
> From article <135@minya.UUCP>, by jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers):
> > ...  Thus the words "systematic" and "systematize"
> > should start with the same letters as "system", though the vowels are
> > pronounced differently in all three words (in most dialects).  ...

> Oh they are?  What are the different pronunciations?

Well, it's a bit hard to do it accurately with ASCII, but I'll give it a go...

First, "system" has initial stress, so in all English dialects the "y" would
be a full, stressed [I] vowel.  The "e", being poststress and final, would
range from a weak neutral or schwa to full loss, with [m] as the vowel.

Next, "systematize", also having initial stress, would have roughly the
same vowel for "y", but the second syllable is no longer final, so it
would be reduced even more, to vocalic [m] in most dialects.

Third, "systematic" has stress on the third syllable.  This would cause
the "y" to be partially reduced, to a neutral [I] in dialects (including
my native dialect) that maintain two contrasting neutral vowels; in others
it would be a plain neutral vowel, except for the few where a vocalic 
[s] exists.  The "e" would be a neutral schwa, or neutral, or weak schwa, 
depending on dialect; being prestress, it would rarely be reduced to a 
vocalic [m].

If this medium could transfer arbitrary symbols, I could of course give
a much more precise analysis, as could any instructor in an intro course
in phonetics, but what can ya do?

Comments?  I'd be interested in hearing [of] exceptions to the above, or
of an unambiguous way of communicating phonetic details via ASCII.

-- 
John Chambers <{adelie,ima,mit-eddie}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)

[Any errors in the above are due to failures in the logic of the keyboard,
not in the fingers that did the typing.]