LETTER and COMMA

Guest   Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:03 pm GMT
What do you mean by "two sets"? Isn't there only one set there?
M56   Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:33 pm GMT
<What do you mean by "two sets"? Isn't there only one set there? >

Lexical sets, dearie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_set
M56   Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:41 pm GMT
<Are there any non-rhotic accents that distinguish these two sets?
>

Without electromagnetic articulographic data, how could we know?
Ms R Sandhi   Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:52 pm GMT
Does it matter?
Gabriel   Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:57 pm GMT
I do not know of any non-rhotic accent that distinguishes those. Wells in Accents of English, describes a non-rhotic near-RP variant in which "western" ["wEst@n] and "Weston" ["wEstn=] don't rhyme. He says that's typical of the near-RP spoken in rhotic localities (e.g. the West Country) and that it could be analyzed as being underlyingly rhotic.
Guest   Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:20 pm GMT
Someone said to me that they are not distinguishable in any systematic way in non-rhotic accents. What do they mean about "in any systematic way"?
Rodd   Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:52 pm GMT
I'm from Northern England and I make the distinction between "western" [wEst@n] and "Weston" [wEstn=].
Jim   Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:14 pm GMT
I make none of those distinctions.