The Mysterious ^
Saul Epstein 
Wed, 27 May 1998 08:01:29 -0500

Quotes from: Rob Zook <lalaith*unicom,net>
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 1998 11:48 PM


>At 07:23 PM 5/26/98 -0400, MDriest wrote:

>
>>I ask forgiveness for asking this again, but what
>>is the ^ exactly?
>
>According to the Lexicon/Grammar, it sounds similar to
>the [i] in Brit. English <sir>. That is to say a center,
>close-mid vowel I think. In Saul's nice IPA chart in
>ASCII, that would place the ^, right about here:
>
>        front       center      back
>close       i---------+----------u
>             \   I    \      U  |
>close-mid     e-----^-----------o
>               \       *       |
>open-mid        E--------------)
>                 ae     \     |
>open              A-----------a

It's definitely in there somewhere. From personal experience, until I
heard someone pronounce a close-center vowel, identified as such, it
had never occured to me that such a thing could exist. It pops up in
some American dialects, the way some deep Arkansans say "me," for
instance. I mention this by comparison with British "sir," which I
_think_ is open-mid. That sign, in any event, the inverted V, usually
winds up somewhere between [a] and [*]. The minimal pairs offered are
something like "cup" [k^p] and "carp" [kap].

Since we don't have anything specifically identified as a schwa, my
eventual suggestion will likely be that ^ is just "in there somewhere"
in the mid-central region. And whatever each of us can come up with in
that area will serve.

--
from Saul Epstein
locus*planetkc,com
www,jccc,net/~sepstein
"Surak ow'phaaper thes'hi thes'tca'; thes'phaadjar thes'hi
    suraketca'."
                                        -- K'dvarin Urswhl'at