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b'In our silver anniversary episode, Phil and Eric talk about the lexical set dress, and all the various vowels that are associated with it. That includes [e] or is it [\\u025b]? The guys try to uncover the history behind the choice to use [e], and advocate pretty hard for their preference, [\\u025b].

Show Notes:

We referred to these as we chatted, but wandered all over the place, so we probably don\\u2019t get to most of them...

DRESS

Open-mid front unrounded vowel

Notice that it isn\\u2019t mid. We don\\u2019t have a symbol there at mid.
It\\u2019s front , though we can feel how much more front /i/ is. The chart reflects this
It\\u2019s unrounded, but that doesn\\u2019t necessarily mean spread.


It\\u2019s a short vowel
It\\u2019s a checked vowel

Cardinal vowel #3 \\u2013 Daniel Jones /\\u025b/
Cardinal vowel #2 \\u2013 Daniel Jones /e/

\\u201cCardinal vowels (2), (3), and (4) are defined as front vowels that form a series of auditorily equidistant steps between cardinal vowels (1) and (5)\\u201d -Ladefoged

Jones also makes a tense/lax distinction
In The Pronunciation of English:

We distinguish two intermediate positions, half-closed and half-open, in which the tongue is lowered from the closed position to about one-third, and two-thirds, of the total distance from the closed position to the open position Examples of \\u2026, halfclosed, half-open, \\u2026 vowels are
e (pen, pen), \\u025b (pair, p\\u025b\\u0259),

e: the half-closed front tense unrounded vowel
\\u025b: a lengthened \\u025b

e Half-closed front lax unrounded. Examples: pen, pen, head, hed. \\u2028In L this vowel is often replaced by i, e.g. git, ind\\u0292in for get (get), end\\u0292in (engine). In many dialects it is replaced by the opener \\u025b , thus, p\\u025bn, h\\u025bd.\\u2028\\u2028Besides occurring independently, the sound e occurs in StP as the first element of the diphthong ei, e.g. day, dei. With many speakers, especially in N.Eng. this diphthong is tense, i.e. the two elements are the tense vowels corresponding to the lax e, i. In Sc the diphthong is not generally used, a pure tense vowel (phonetic symbol e:) being substituted (de:). In L the first element of the diphthong ei is much opener than in StP, becoming \\u025b, \\xe6, a, or even \\u0251, thus d\\u025bi, d\\xe6i, dai, d\\u0251i. In L e sometimes occurs instead of \\u028c \\u2028\\u2028Note the faulty pronunciation of aerate (StP ei\\u0259reit or e\\u0259reit) as \\u025b\\u0259reit or i\\u0259reit. The words again, always are often pronounced agen, \\u0254:lwiz, \\u0254:lw\\u0259z, but the forms agein, \\u0254:lweiz are preferable.\\u2028\\u2028Half-open front unrounded. This sound only occurs in StP in the diphthong \\u025b\\u0259. Examples there, their, \\xf0\\u025b\\u0259. See also the previous section. In the pronunciation of many S.Eng. speakers, the first element of this diphthong is more open than \\u025b, being in fact practically \\xe6 (\\xf0\\xe6\\u0259). The form \\u025b\\u0259 is preferable. In L the first element of this diphthong is the half-closed tense vowel e: (\\xf0e\\u0259)



\\u201cThe standard lexical set DRESS\\xa0is defined as comprising those words whose citation form in RP has the stressed vowel /e/ and in GenAm /\\u025b/\\u201d -Wells

step, bet, neck, fetch, Jeff, mess, mesh, ebb, bed, egg, edge, rev, fez, hem, pen, bell, shelf, hemp, tent, theft, best, sex, next, effort, method, terror, tenor, jelly, centre/center, pester, threat, sweat, deaf, death, bread, dead, head, health, realm, meant, breast, ready, jealous, pleasant, weather, treacherous, any, many, Thames, friend, says, said, Leicester, bury.

These words are mostly spelled with \\u201ce\\u201d or \\u201cea\\u201d. These two spellings represent two sources in Middle English: \\u201cshort e\\u201d and \\u201clong \\u025b\\u201d
Those spelled with \\u201ce\\u201d have stayed somewhere close to [\\u025b] while those spelled \\u201cea\\u201d were originally pronounced [e]. \\u2013 Falstaff, for example, rhymes \\u201craisins\\u201d with \\u201creasons\\u201d.\\u2028This pronunciation remains in some accents.\\u2028\\u2028Breaking and shading effects are possible with DRESS as they are with KIT. In some accents the vowel is raised toward /\\u026a/ in environments where it is followed by a nasal, making the words \\u201cpin\\u201d and \\u201cpen\\u201d homophones.

Breaking is the diphthongization of monophthongs.
Shading is the development of different allophones conditioned by the place of articulation of the following consonant.
With DRESS in the South, shading seems to occur in Southern American accents when /\\u025b/ is followed by /d/, /m/, /l/ or /\\u02a4/.
When followed by /\\u0261/, /\\u0283/, /\\u0292/, or /\\u0292/, the effect can be so strong as to shift the vowel all the way to the diphthong /e\\u026a /.


SQUARE and MERRY/MARRY/MARY in a future show!

Swedish makes a distinction between monophthongal /e\\u02d0/ /\\u025b\\u02d0/ and /\\u025b/
but when I listen to the samples there is more of a difference in quality than quantity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_phonology#Vowels
\\xa0
French contrasts /e\\u02d0/ /\\u025b\\u02d0/ /\\u025b/ \\xa0and /\\u025b\\u0303/
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 So saith Wikipedia. Is that really true? Sort of...
\\xa0
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 German seems to exhibit a 4 way contrast of /e\\u02d0/ /e/ \\xa0/\\u025b\\u02d0/ and /\\u025b/
But the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_phonology also expresses some doubts about the factuality of this distinction.


Further Notes from various blogs etc.\\u2028
Jack Windsor Lewis: \'When it comes to a snappy name for [\\u025b] I shd prefer \'Greek e\' to epsilon (whether as /ep`sa\\u026al\\u0259n/ or /`eps\\u026al\\u0259n/). \'

\\u025b\\u0259 becomin\\u0261 monophthon\\u0261al \\u025b\\u02d0\\u2014 JWL: All three of the GB centring diphthongs are very commonly he\\xb7rd with monophthongal allophones. Traditionally these wd not be used before breaks ie at the ends of rhythm units. However, the case of /\\u025b\\u0259/ is different. The use of a strest unit-final [\\u025b\\u02d0] wd indicate that the speaker must be categorised as possessing a phoneme /\\u025b\\u02d0/ replacing the traditional /\\u025b\\u0259/. This was at one time distinctly a minority usage: Daniel Jones in 1958 only sed "[o]ccasionally one hears [it]". However, it\'s now for sev\\xb7ral decades become less and less so.

John Wells: A Red Dress -- Northern Cities Shift, DRESS is mid-centralizing \\u025b \\u2192 \\u0250

In Canada, it\'s just becoming more open: DRESS is shifting \\u025b \\u2192 \\xe6

John Wells: Antipodean (i.e. Australian vs. New Zealand) "While both Australians and New Zealanders \\u2014 but particularly the latter \\u2014 can give the rest of us the impression that they are pronouncing DRESS words with the KIT vowel (Rebekah \\u2192 Ribikah) and TRAP words with the DRESS vowel (shag \\u2192 sheg), it is only New Zealanders whose KIT vowel is so centralized as to lead us to perceive it as the STRUT vowel. Australians, on the other hand, make it closer and fronter than in many other accents, nearer to [i]. "

Wells, in response to Upton\'s changes for OED:
Bet. In some languages, notably French and German, one needs to distinguish two e-type vowels, a closer one (IPA [e]) and an opener one (IPA [\\u025b]). The English bet vowel lies between them, but is more similar to [\\u025b], which is why Upton prefers that symbol. However, from the point of view of an EFL learner whose native language is, say, Japanese or Greek -- languages that have no such distinction -- it is quite unnecessary to distinguish the "[e]" at the starting point of the face diphthong from the "[\\u025b]" of bet. And following IPA principles, if we are to choose just one of the two symbols we should prefer the simpler one.

http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/e-and.html

1. Although I usually use e for the English vowel of DRESS, there is nothing incorrect or unscientific about using \\u025b instead. This is the symbol used in the Kenyon-Knott system, still in use among American dialectologists and speech people (who just call this notation \\u201cIPA\\u201d), and also for EFL in Taiwan (but as far as I know, virtually only in Taiwan). Ladefoged used it in earlier editions of his Course in Phonetics, before switching to e.

2. An important principle of good phonetic transcription is simplicity. As Ladefoged formulates it,
"A simple phonemic transcription uses the smallest possible number of different letters." [D. Abercrombie, 1964, English Phonetic Texts, London: Faber & Faber, page 19.]
Since the DRESS vowel can be unambiguously written e, an English transcription with the symbol e is simpler than one with \\u025b. The same applies in those languages that have just five vowels (or just five peripheral vowels), e.g. Modern Greek, Serbian, Polish, Czech, Japanese. In these languages the mid front vowel is best, and most simply, written e. Whether its quality is closer to that of cardinal 2 [e] or cardinal 3 [\\u025b] is irrelevant. On the other hand, in languages that have a close-mid front vowel in contrast to an open-mid one (e.g. French, German, a Scottish accent of English), the two symbols e and \\u025b must both be used; and that means \\u025b for French m\\xeame, German Bett, and Scottish dress.

http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-about-e-and.html

3. The vowel of English DRESS varies considerably. A former RP quality, now obsolete, was very close to cardinal 2 [e]: a similarly close-mid quality is to be heard in Australian English, and in New Zealand it is often even closer. The current British average quality is somewhere between cardinal 2 [e] and cardinal 3 [\\u025b]. There are also local varieties in which it is fully open-mid. In American English it can be open-mid and considerably centred. If we want to symbolize all of these possibilities in a single symbol, the phonetic case for [e] is not much different from the case for [\\u025b].

4. The choice of symbol for DRESS is bound up with the question of the choice of symbol for FACE. In accents where the FACE vowel is monophthongal and not distinctively long (e.g. Scottish English, perhaps some northern AmE) we must write face as fes and dress as dr\\u025bs. In all other varieties of English, where FACE is either a long monophthong or a diphthong, there will be no confusion in writing DRESS with e as long as FACE is written correspondingly as e\\u02d0 or e\\u026a (or, with Trager and Smith, as ey, or with Chomsky and Halle as \\u0113y).

5. Furthermore, there are many accents in which the diphthong of FACE starts more open than the height of DRESS: for example, popular London and SE England (\\u201cEstuary English\\u201d) and Australian and New Zealand speech. (It was phonetically perverse of the Macquarie dictionary of Australian English to write FACE as e\\u026a and DRESS as \\u025b.)

6. Consider now the position, say, of Japanese learners of English. In their own language they have just a single mid front vowel, \\u30a7 e. It is (in my view) entirely satisfactory for them to use this sound for the English DRESS vowel, and as the first part of an e\\u026a diphthong for English FACE. If we were to write DRESS as dr\\u025bs we would be implying that they need to learn to use a special (non-Japanese) quality for DRESS, different from the starting point of FACE fe\\u026as. And instead of occasional emails from Europe asking why I don\\u2019t use \\u025b, I would be faced with hundreds of emails from Japan asking me to explain why I use a funny symbol \\u025b. (My readers will correct me if I am wrong, but \\u2014 as far as I know \\u2014 Japanese, Korean and Chinese dictionaries of English, except in Taiwan, all transcribe the DRESS vowel as e.)

7. Lastly, the tradition in English pronouncing dictionaries ever since they first appearance of EPD nearly a century ago has been to write DRESS as e. If it ain\\u2019t broke, don\\u2019t fix it.

Wells\' "Lexical Sets" [http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/lexical-sets.html] The choice of the keyword DRESS has proved awkward for people dealing with New Zealand English, where the upward shifting of the vowel in question has led them to have to refer to DRESS Raising.

Newfoundland English by Sandra Clark from A Handbook of Varieties of English: Phonology vol 1 ed Edgar W. Schneider,

DRESS
For most speakers, the DRESS vowel is realized as standard lax low-mid [\\u025b]. On the Irish Avalon, conservative rural speakers display variable and conditioned raising of this vowel to [\\u026a] in the environment of a following stop or affricate, e.g. pension, get, connected. As noted above, the same phenomenon may be observed among conservative speakers in rural English-settled areas of the province, where raising to [\\u026a] occurs before a following non-velar stop or affricate, as in head, hedge, engine, bench. Before /l/ or a voiceless velar, however (e.g. yellow, wreak, breakfast), lowering to an [\\xe6]-like articulation may occur in English-settled areas. In addition, [\\u025b] before a voiced velar may be tensed and diphthongized in a stressed syllable, as in keg pronounced [k\\u02b0ei\\u0261] (e.g. Noseworthy 1971.)
A similar lowered and somewhat retracted pronunciation of [\\u025b] for words in the DRESS set is beginning to make inroads, in a broad set of phonetic environments, in the speech of upwardly mobile young urban Newfoundlanders. This reflects the influence of the innovative CanE tendency described as the "Canadian Shift" by Clarke, Elms and Youssef (1995), in which lax front vowels are lowered and retracted.

CAMEROON English by Augustin Simo Bobda from A Handbook of Varieties of English: Phonology vol 1 ed Edgar W. Schneider,

paintEd with [\\u025b] , with words in -ess (actress, princess), -less, -ness, -men. and villAge, with [e], with words in -ace, -ain, -ate, -ein sets in Cameroon English

The regular realizations of the DRESS vowel are /\\u025b/ and /e/, which are in complementary distribution in some cases; /\\u025b/ occurs in final syllables as in pen, rest, breast, while /e/ occurs before one and only one medial consonant, and before Cj, Cw, and Cr sequences as in element, medical, special, educate, equity, equalize, metric, retrograde. The tensing of /\\u025b/ to /e/ in this context is known in the literature as the E-Tensing Rule. /e/ frther occurs frequently before the sequences of mC and nC as in embassy, emperor, member, centre, mention. /e/ finally occurs with the common word says, as a result of the local restructuring of the FACE vowel induced by the analogy with say and other words in orthographic ay.

***new stuff added today***

NZE by Laurie Bower and Paul Warren in A Handbook of Varieties of English: Phonology vol 1 ed Edgar W. Schneider,

The DRESS vowel is close in New Zealand, even by Australian standards, and may overlap with the FLEECE vowel in terms of its formant structure, although more central variants are also common.
There is neutralization with SQUARE before /r/ (making ferry and fairy homophonous) and neutralization with TRAP before /l/ (as in Ellen and Alan).
If vowels are to be paired in terms of length/tension, then in NZE the DRESS vowel should be paired with the FLEECE vowel, as being the closest long vowel in terms of quality.

FIJI English

DRESS and TRAP are, essentially, merged. So words like paddle/peddle, lag/leg, tampered/tempered are homophonous.

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