Peter, The phonemic inventories of both American and British english contain a single, voiceless velar stop: [k]. The voiceless velar stop in English does show variation in exact point of articulation depending on what phonemes precede and follow. This variation occurs within the speech instances of a single speaker, between different speakers of the same dialect, and certainly across dialects (of which there are many in both the UK and the US). These articulatory differences, however, are not systematic. They do not represent a phonemic distinction. Attempting to enunciate a difference would be better labelled "synthetic" rather than "good". -Kipp > From: petersirises@gmail.com > > no, the "k" and "q" are made with different parts of the mouth, it is not > just the "u" which makes them sound different. The k is produced with the > middle of the tounge against the palette and the tip of the tounge well > down. The "q" is made with the back of the tounge and the tip of the tounge > held up. > Equally with "sh" and "sch" the sounds are created differently. This > disregard for pronunciation, despite good enunciation, makes many American > accents sound crass to english speakers in Britain. > Peter (UK) > > > On 2 September 2014 23:26, penstemon <penstemon@q.com> wrote: > > > > > and do you pronounce "kilt and "quilt" as indistinguishable too? In British > > English, for these, the mouth shapes differently and produces different > > sounds. > > > > > > In American English, too. "Kilt", and "kwilt". (I hardly ever use either > > word.) > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/