Language /
The usage and future of the special Polish letters: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ż, ź (Polish language) [203]
I asked for an articulate post and when I finally got one, I didn't respond immediately. Sorry about that, I actually did write one before but Firefox crashed and didn't feel like write it down all over again. Since you great post deserve at least some appreciation, I'm writing it down again.
I'll have to give in and say that if phonetics experts say that's the same sound, I'll have to rely on it. But that's one big problems for me in general - it describes qualitatively, not quantitatively, which makes everything rely on blurry statements and authority, not on empirical data like normal exact science.
That's understandable, although I'd say it would take an average learner no more than a couple of weeks to study it and achieve a near expert understanding of what these signs mean and how they are to be used, along with some associated, practical examples. Not a rocket science at all.
I know what many of those symbols correspond to (it was useful learning French), I don't know what the terms like "velar" or "pharyngelar" mean. And I certainly don't a have a couple of weeks of time to learn it LOL.
He may be satisfying this requirement in his field of expertise, but Polish phonology is not that field.
It's not hard to admit defeat as there's no battle in the first place, unless you treat a discussion as such, which tells more about you than anything else. Another thing I don't understand is why linguistics don't have several semesters of mathematics. It'd make much sense in that even a book like "A Hundred Years of Solitude" could be analyzed quantitatively (statistically) if you knew what data could be useful for your goals and how to extract it.