> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, John Klein wrote: > #I actually had a similar discussion with a friend recently about 'fairy' > #and 'ferry'. This was particularly disconcerting because: > # > #b) He claimed I pronounced them differently despite not being aware of any > # difference. > Mark A. Mandel said: > This is known to happen. William Labov, who is damn' near the father of > variation studies (and who's right here at Penn, and giving a talk > tomorrow that I may have to miss, dammit!) was IIRC the first to show > it. On a related note (ahem:), when I was studying operatic singing, I was amazed at how the slightest change in the tension of the vocal chords, the placement of the soft pallete<sp>, the movement of the tongue, and other physical actions could alter, very slightly, the sound of vowels. When singing an "Ah", it is very easy for the sound to change and become more of an "Uh", or somewhere in between. Of course, it was a pain in the neck to listen closely to my own vowels and correct them, not hearing much of a difference and having to rely on subtle physical alterations. Frustrating? You bet! <grin> :0 Chris "Life is the nightmare that leaves its mark upon you in order to prove that it is, in fact, real." -Thomas Ligotti- 'The Sect of the Idiot'