Travis B. wrote:Then there is real versus reel, which are homophones for me as [ʁʷi(ː)ɯ̯].
How can any dialect/accent/whatever of English in the US have [ʁ]? Is there so much French influence in the northern states?
Anyway, I pronunce "real" and "real" differently, something like [ɾiə̯ɫ~ɾiə̯l] and [ɹ̠ɪə̯ɫ~ɹ̠ɪə̯l] respectively. I'm not entirely sure if the /l/ is [ɫ] or [l], though... I mean, I know there's something g-y going on in my mouth at the end, but I can't really tell if it's velarisation or (post-)palatalisation or what. The /r/ is also probably more specifically something along the lines of [ɾʲ~ɾˠ~ɾ̠ʲ~ɾ̠ˠ~ɾ̻ʲ~ɾ̻ˠ], but I have absolutely no idea about the specifics even though it's my mouth.
Znex wrote:Neil and kneel are homophones for me: [nɪiʊ̯]
Monosyllabically, [nʲiɪ̯ɫ~nʲiɪ̯l] and [niːɫ~niːl]. "Kneel" is impossible for me to pronounce disyllabically, but Neil could just as well be [nʲɪi̯əɫ~nʲɪi̯əl].