surprising that a Spanish-speaker shudders at the odd differences of English pronunciation: tough, though, rough, bough, cow, low, sow, sow, sew, so, saw, etc.? "A striking difference between English and Spanish is that many English words have more than one acceptable pronunciation" (Finch, 1982). We have heard lately both harassment and harassment regarding a Supreme Court judge's alleged sexual behavior. "Sow" (an adult female swine) is different from "sow" (to scatter seed). Three-quarters or so of these different meanings are due to vowel variabilities: enough, especial, hatred, hasten, children, accident, definite.
John Martin (1965) noted that "The phonological systems of English and Spanish differ in the combinations of features which make up their phonemes and allophones." They are systematically different. For example, the Spanish /b/ is composed of the features of labiality, orality, and voice, whereas English /b/ is composed of the features of labiality, orality, voice, and occlusivity. In other words, Spanish /b/ is eithe
...