Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Well, well, well---

At first, we (my husband and I) were really surprised of the perfection.
Did I tell you about the suitcase??
On the last business trip, his suitcase (to be correct, my daughter's suitcase) was crashed.
So he called to an airline company. They came and took it for free, and repair it for free, and send it for free. (Of course it is covered by travel insurance).
But we are looking forward to getting new suitcase because it might be difficult to repair it.
BUT the skill is great --- perfect, and unfortunately it is repaired.

My daughter said "I used only once, why is it so dirty???". I said "your father uses it, not me"




Everybody who are interested in Japan, must know that "we don't wear shoes in the room".


So "socks" are really important.


And I have have a poor circulation. So even in summer, I need socks.I usually wear "normal" five-toe-socks. "normal" means the length is ankle-length. But it's little bit hot in summer. And I know these days foot-cover type socks are sold. So I bought them. They are five-toe socks, and the important thing is they are made from "silk". This material is good for our health. And they are made in JAPAN.


And now I finished reading and solving the questions.

So I wrote it.

Probably you know, though my English skill is not so good, but I teach English to some kids and adults. And I often read English picture books. To read English picture books phonics rule is really effective. From this autumn, I have a workshop to introduce phonics. At junior high schools and high schools, students don't learn phonics rule. So phonics rules are not so popular in Japan. I studied by myself. And I'm studying more about phonics. So my friend sent me three books. I finished two of them. I could solve the questions. --- grin!!!

Well, the question is -- about the letter "y" in the last syllable of the words, for example, city, party, slowly.

According to the dictionary, the pronunciation of city is "siti" ( They are not letters, they are pronunciation symbols). But the book says, the vowel phoneme represented by the letter "y" in the last syllable is the same phoneme represented by the letter "e" in the word eve.

But According to the dictionary the pronunciation symbols of eve is "i:v". I think "i" and "i:" are different, not the length, the "sound" is different. What do you think about it?

4 comments:

Tim Frost said...

They did a neat job on that suitcase. Is it metal?

Instead of 'made by "silk" ', you should say 'made from "silk" ' or 'made of "silk" '. There is a slight difference between "of" and "from", but usually either is OK for this kind of phrase. I can explain the difference if you are interested.

Any question about English pronunciation is likely to be difficult because there are so many native English accents. I am British, so my viewpoint would be different from an American or Australia in many cases.

If you are brave enough, look at this table of vowel pronunciation in 9 different native English accents:

English pronunciation

The answer to your particular question is given in the table.
The "y" of "city" is pronounced like a short "i" (in all accents); the i: symbol represents a long "i" (in all accents where it exists*) like the "ee" in the word "see". In my opinion, in my own accent (which is close to the standard British accent), "i:" is just a long version of "i" and there is no difference in sound.

* According to the table, "i:" and "i" are both pronounced as "i" in the American, Canadian and Scottish accents. In my view, if they are pronounced the same, then it is more likely both are pronounced as "i:". The table is in Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is not always correct.

Mieko said...

Butter is made from milk, usualy pencils are made of wood.

Well, pronunciation is intereseting to me. And now as you know I manage a group of English reading picture books. So pronounciation is important.

I learnt the sign of : is not mentioned the length, it mentioned
tension, though it concerns with length.
And I know there are many ways to pronounce language, not only in English, even in Japanese.

Well, when I have other question, I write them on this blog.
Because some friends are intereseted in my questions, though they seldom write their comments here.

Thanks Tim for your usual quick comments.

mss @ nipponDAZE said...

I think you are right.

The first e in eve, and the ee in see have the same pronunciation and the same length (number of beats). The tone drops on the second beat. I think it sounds like the Japanese 聞いて.

The ending y in city also has the same pronunciation but it is shorter--more like the Japanese 着て.

Of course, my American pronunciation is different than Tim's British one. (My husband is British and sometimes we can't understand each other's English.)

Anonymous said...

To Mss Nippon-Daze

Your comment is intereseting.
You showed the examples of 聞いてand 着て
As you know, in ROMAJI, they are written like KI-I-TE,
and KI-TE.
Three HIRAGANA, and two HIRAGANA.

But when we say the word, yes, KI~(It means long i) and Ki-te.

and probably, 来て has a same pronoucitaion of 着て、but in KYUSYU, you might use a different Japanese, it is called KYUYSYU-BEN, or KUMAMOTO-BEN.