Bed time - Bet time
What's the difference in pronunciation in fast speech between:
It's bed time!
It's bet time!
If there is any difference, can anyone show it to me with transcriptions in strict IPA? Or maybe recording them? Remember I'm asking about fast speech, so don't try to pronounce those slowly and overly carefully.
The bet in bet time ends with a glottal stop and will be shorter and sharper than in bed time.
But really, how often does anyone say "bet time"?
The vowel of bed is longer than that of bet. In fast speech the d might not be that voiced, and in "bet time" the t could be a glottal stop...but it's really the vowel that makes the difference.
Say "the height of a bear" versus "the hide of a bear".
Uriel,
I'd like to ask you something in private. Would you let me know your email address?
Thank you very much.
With every good wish,
Achab
<<But really, how often does anyone say "bet time"? >>
Correct. One would say "It's betting time" not "it's bet time". That's doesn't make any sense.
Yes, but I think vowel length only makes sense in stressed syllables. And it doesn't matter whether "bet time" makes sense, because it's just an experiment to see if how you would be able to distinguish some phonemes in certain environments.
So I think there would be no way to distinguish these two, if you stress "TIME" and leave the first word unstressed (even without secondary stress):
bed TIME
bet TIME
And don't tell me that I shouldn't stress TIME, I don't care. It's an experiment. And don't try to say them slowly, or that wouldn't be natural fast speech and you'd end up putting a secondary stress on the first word in each pair.
Thanks.
Even with TIME stressed, there is still a slight difference in the way I pronounce both. And if I pronounce both differently, it's possible, however remotely, that the hearer may also be able to distinguish between the 'd' and the 't'
I think there is no difference in this highly contrived case. Even if theoretically the /e/ in "bed" should be longer and more open, there's no way the difference would be perceptible in an unstressed syllable.
BTW, if you said "it's bet TIME", I would assume you said "It's bad time".
Chicagoan ''Bad Time'' sounds like General American ''Bed Time''.
I don't like the Chicago accent.
