The Phonemic Principle

Abstract

Imagine how a speaker of RP might try to convey the ways in which his speech, that of a Frenchman and that of a Spaniard sound different. We have all heard French and Spanish being spoken, and we have some kind of impression in our minds of what they sound like; we can often tell which is being spoken, even if we do not understand a word of what is being said. With our ordinary, everyday language, we can convey general impressions, in a vague sort of way; we may say that French is ‘more nasal’, ‘more musical’, ‘softer’ or ‘more forceful’ than RP, but these are not at all precise or informative expressions, and because of this, it is difficult to say whether they might be true or false.