Don Livingston (Graduate Student)
4500 Whitman Ave. North #2 Dept. Slav. Lang. & Lit., DP-32
Seattle, WA 98103 University of Washington
Phone/Fax (206) 634-1539 Seattle, WA 98195
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 21:26:06 EST
From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU
Subject: Re: th/dh
There's thigh/thy, and (although it's a bit of a stretch to call it a minimal
pair) thistle/this'll. Also, for the relevant vocalic dialect, ether/either.
Larry Horn
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 20:38:32 -0600
From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: th/dh
I'm amazed. In my ignorance I hadn't realized that there was any
dialect of English where we actually had minimal pairs distinguished by
the voiced/voiceless interdental fricatives. I have a request for any
either/ether
--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 23:09:18 EST
From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU
Subject: Re: th/dh
Besides the few we've been discussing, I forgot to mention the pattern of
adjectives and nouns with final -th that alternate with verbs with final -dh
(spelled -the):
mouth vs. mouthe
loath vs. loathe
wreath vs. wreathe
There are probably other pairs that participate in this pattern, in some cases
subject to dialectal and idiolectal variation, considering how marginal some
of these lexical items are. (Other potential pairs are of course wrecked by
the vowel shift: bath/bathe, breath/breathe,...)
In any case, the situation with th/dh pairs is a lot more robust that what
we find with sh/zh (voiceless/voiced palatal fricatives). The best I've ever
come up with here is Confucian/confusion, while other would-be pairs involve
either proper names invoked for the occasion (Asher/azure), marginal instances
of productive word-formation (mesher/measure), or near-minimal pairs that
don't quite get there (pressure/pleasure, thresher/treasure). Can anybody do
better?
Larry Horn
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 21:27:29 -0700
From: Rudy Troike RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ARIZVMS.BITNET
Subject: Re: th/dh
See the advantage of merging |IN| and |EN| (diaphonemic representation)?
--Rudy Troike
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 23:35:35 EST
From: Erick Byrd EBYRD[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Rock 'n Roll"
Hello, Sheila:
Regarding your question about your colleague's random expression,
"Rock 'n Roll!", I'd like to offer the following: I think what he is
indicating is a level of interest or excitement about whatever the
immediate topic of conversation is, or else a desire to get started with the
project at hand. He is telling everyone around that he is of a positive
attitude, and feels good about the topic which has precipitated his remark.
Rock 'n roll music is, by nature, a "letting go" of all inhibition, which
your classmate is also exhibiting. There's more, but it only serves to
underscore or amplify what I think I have already expressed.
Sincerely, Erick Byrd
------------------------------
End of ADS-L Digest - 28 Nov 1993 to 29 Nov 1993
************************************************
There are 27 messages totalling 493 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. th/dh (6)
2. "Rock 'n Roll"
3. egg-aig
4. Rock'n Roll
5. Half Past the Hour (10)
6. song
7. sh/zh
8. Quarter to/till/of the Hour
9. noon and points around it (2)
10. quarter of
11. loss of dialect distinctiveness
12. rock n roll
---------------