Is /ju/ in words like "mute" one phoneme or two?

/ju/? Isn't it /yu/? There's no "j" sound in "mute".

No, we're writing in X-SAMPA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA ), which is an ASCII adaptation of the International Phonetic Alphabet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA ). In X-SAMPA, [j] represents the y-sound.

<<No, we're writing in X-SAMPA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA ), which is an ASCII adaptation of the International Phonetic Alphabet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA ). In X-SAMPA, [j] represents the y-sound.>>

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. It was quite confusing to me.

How would the "j" sound be represented with X-SAMPA?

That's represented as [dZ].

GOSH, I'M SO GLAD I SPEAK SPANISH AND I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ALL THESE STUPID RULES AND DISCUSSIONS.

I'm so glad I'm not an idiot like the previous poster, who can't understand rules or partake in discussions.

I'm so glad I don't speak Spanish. After all, it has that stupid grammatical gender.

Well what about "juice"? I have a "y" sound in that word so it's "jyooss" I guess in X-SAMPA [dZjus].

I don't have a [j] there - I pronounce it [dZus], or "jooce" - but I have heard of that phenomenon. There was a poster here named Kirk, from California, who said that he pronounced "juice" with a [j] ( http://www.antimoon.com/forum/posts/6906-6.htm ).

Even though I don't do it in "juice", I do do it in "issue" and "tissue", which I pronounce ["ISju], ["t_hISju].

<<There was a poster here named Kirk, from California, who said that he pronounced "juice" with a [j]>>

That's interesting. I'm also from California.