Re: Stress accent?

[raybrown@macline.co.uk (Raymond A. Brown)]

At 2:31 pm 16/4/98, John Cowan wrote:
[....]
>
>What about a compromise?  In modern French, stress is simply not phonemic:

If stress is absolutely fixed, it's not phonemic anyway.

>the word-final stress is really more like phrase-final, and even then it
>can shift in certain circumstances:
>
>        [indicating a train]:  A Pa 'ris?
>        [conductor:]  Oui, a 'Pa ris.
>
>Brithenig is very close to French in some ways, specifically in the
>slaughter of final syllables.  I have been practicing saying
>
>        Ill Dragun 'Rhys
>
>French style instead of
>
>        Ill 'Dragun 'Rhys
>
>Spanish style.

Yep - the French system is certainly what I'd favor.
------------------------------------------------------------
And at 6:43 pm 16/4/98, Padraic Brown wrote:
>On Thu, 16 Apr 1998, Raymond A. Brown wrote:
[....]
>> [*Americans seem to have no problem, cf the different Brit. & American
>> pronunciations of 'cafe', 'debris', 'garage', 'buffet' etc. ]
>
>I've heard English folk pronounce them ['ke:f], ['de: bri], ['gaer radj]
>and ['buf fet].  I assume that's what you mean.  Even some Merkins say
>['buf fe:].

[ke:f] is only - and then rarely - used facetiously.  The normal Brit
pronunciation is "caffy"; certainly "debbry" is what all Brits say.
'garage' varies; many of us, myself included, say ['g{ae}rIdZ] others, like
my wife, say ['garaZ], but the stress is always on the first syllable.
'buffet' is either "buffy" or "buffay" - "buffet" is considered vulgar & is
not commonly heard.

Raifun.

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Written in Net English        Humor not necessarily marked

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