Southern accent on the first syllable
Kolaga Xiuhtecuhtli
to stress the first syllable of a word. This doesn't apply
to all words. I'm not sure what the rule is.
---
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Joseph C Fineman
>In the Southern regional accent, there is a strong tendency to stress
>the first syllable of a word. This doesn't apply to all words. I'm
>not sure what the rule is.
In English as a whole, there is a strong tendency to stress the first
syllable of a word. The exceptions vary, and some of the variation is
regional. I don't know what the situation is, but I am sure it is
more complicated that what you describe. I have the impression, e.g.,
that most Texans stress the first syllable in "United States", but I
don't think all southerners do that.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: The U.S. is a bus that was designed & built while driving it :||
||: to California. :||
Larry Phillips
Sp_am_Kil_ler...@worldnet.att.net (Kolaga Xiuhtecuhtli)
wrote:
>In the Southern regional accent, there is a strong tendency
>to stress the first syllable of a word. This doesn't apply
>to all words. I'm not sure what the rule is.
It might help a lot if you clarified which southern region you are
talking about.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
When life looks like Easy Street, there is danger at your door.
-- Grateful Dead
http://cr347197-a.surrey1.bc.wave.home.com/larry/
Jim Douglass
in the South.
Sportscasters never say "Dih-FENSE".
Jim Douglass
JNugent231
>Wonder if the pronounciation "DEE-fense", used in football, originated
>in the South.
>Sportscasters never say "Dih-FENSE".
I remember "IN-censed" used by Ray Stevens in his song "The Streak". Is that
similar? It made the context sound very religious.....
Albert Marshall
>In the Southern regional accent, there is a strong tendency
>to stress the first syllable of a word. This doesn't apply
>to all words. I'm not sure what the rule is.
Southern Where?
--
Albert Marshall
Visual Solutions
Kent, England
01634 400902
D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff
Joseph C Fineman <j...@world.std.com> wrote:
>Sp_am_Kil_ler...@worldnet.att.net (Kolaga Xiuhtecuhtli) writes:
>
>>In the Southern regional accent, there is a strong tendency to stress
>>the first syllable of a word. This doesn't apply to all words. I'm
>>not sure what the rule is.
>
>syllable of a word. The exceptions vary, and some of the variation is
>regional. I don't know what the situation is, but I am sure it is
>more complicated that what you describe.
Many of the cases I can think of seem to be the result of analogy. For
instance, my gentleman friend finds my pronunciation of 'HOtel' quite
hilarious, but he doesn't have the same reaction to 'MOtel'. It seems
quite reasonable to me that both words should have the same stress pat-
tern, whether initial or final.
The pronunciation 'DEfense', noted in another post, is an example of the
spread of a pattern that demands initial stress for nouns and final stress
for associated adjectives, e.g. REcord, but reCORD, INvite, but inVITE,
ADdress, but adDRESS, etc. It's probable that the spread is more advanced
in some dialects than in others, but there seems to be variation among
speakers of the same dialect.
--
Daniel "Da" von Brighoff /\ Dilettanten
(de...@midway.uchicago.edu) /__\ erhebt Euch
/____\ gegen die Kunst!
Joseph C Fineman
>Many of the cases I can think of seem to be the result of analogy.
>For instance, my gentleman friend finds my pronunciation of 'HOtel'
>quite hilarious, but he doesn't have the same reaction to 'MOtel'.
>It seems quite reasonable to me that both words should have the same
>stress pat-tern, whether initial or final.
I stress them both on the second syllable, but I agree with your
friend that "MOtel" sounds less odd than "HOtel". My pronunciation,
AFAIK, is still the standard one --
I know a renegade hotel.
I also know I hate it well. (Ogden Nash)
-- but there is no question that it is a linguistic oddity. Almost
all words that have come into English from French eventually shift
their stress to the English pattern. "Hotel" is a stubborn holdout.
Even the dialects that stress the first syllable seem to retain
secondary stress on the second syllable; I have not yet heard it with
the stress pattern of "hostel". Perhaps Mr Nash's great-grandchild
will be able to write
I'm sure the bill for this damned hotel
Will make my loathing for it total.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: Don't give me that horse maneuver. The age of cavalry is :||
||: dead. :||
nancy g.
>> Wonder if the pronounciation "DEE-fense", used in football,
>> originated in the South.
>> Sportscasters never say "Dih-FENSE".
> I remember "IN-censed" used by Ray Stevens in his song "The Streak".
> Is that similar? It made the context sound very religious.....
My Southern friend (southern part of the United States, for those
who have been asking -- Virginia, to be more precise) says both
"IN-surance" and "RE-ceipt." He's the only person I've ever known
to say either of those words the way he does.
William Lieblich
The only person on television I know of who uses a Southern
first-syllable pronunciation is Jim Lehrer (PBS newshour), who is (IINM)
from Oklahoma. Other Southerner broadcasters, like Dan Rather, have
generally buried or smoothed the edges from their accents.
Bill Lieblich
D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff
An even more stubborn holdout is "garage", whose stress pattern a half-
century of suburban living has not been able to alter. What does seem to
be happening instead is contraction of the first syllable. This was
brought to my attention by the Ween song "In the garage", in which the
word is consistently pronounced /gradZ/--to the extant that, when it is
held over two half notes in one line, the stressed vowel is merely length-
ened. That is, instead of:
In the ga-rage
They sing:
In the g'ra-age
D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff
>JNugent231 wrote:
>
>>> Wonder if the pronounciation "DEE-fense", used in football,
>>> originated in the South.
>>> Sportscasters never say "Dih-FENSE".
>
>> I remember "IN-censed" used by Ray Stevens in his song "The Streak".
>> Is that similar? It made the context sound very religious.....
>
>My Southern friend (southern part of the United States, for those
>who have been asking -- Virginia, to be more precise) says both
>"IN-surance" and "RE-ceipt." He's the only person I've ever known
>to say either of those words the way he does.
I do, too--though not consistently. And I'm no more Southern than Tina
Turner.
Mark Odegard
17:50:11 GMT, de...@midway.uchicago.edu (D. Edward Gund v.
Brighoff) in <F1uxJ...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote
|the
|word is consistently pronounced /gradZ/
Yeah! This is about how I say it in rapid colloquial speech.
/gra:dZ/ is probably closer. The schwa that should be between
the g and the r is gone, but some sort of aspiration has been
left behind. For myself, 'grawdge' is the most pleasing
eye-spelling.
--
Mark Odegard. (Omit OMIT to email)
Emailed copies of responses are very much appreciated.
Joseph C Fineman
>An even more stubborn holdout is "garage", whose stress pattern a
>half-century of suburban living has not been able to alter. What
>does seem to be happening instead is contraction of the first
>syllable.
Well, that's just another way of getting the stress on the the (new)
first syllable %^). Cf. the common U.S. pronunciations of "suppose",
"suspect", etc. In Britain, some people actually do rhyme it with
"carriage"; a more refined pronunciation has secondary stress & a
quasiFrench pronunciation for the second syllable.
An anomaly in the other direction is "differ". Why has it succumbed
to recessive accent while "confer", "refer", "defer", & (usually)
"transfer" have held fast? Perhaps for better distinctness from
"defer" -- but English-speakers are seldom squeamish about making new
homophones.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: It is tasteless to recommend one's own taste, but scarcely :||
||: honest to recommend any other. :||
D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff
>nancy g. wrote:
>>
>> JNugent231 wrote:
>>
>> >> Wonder if the pronounciation "DEE-fense", used in football,
>> >> originated in the South.
>> >> Sportscasters never say "Dih-FENSE".
>>
>> > I remember "IN-censed" used by Ray Stevens in his song "The Streak".
>> > Is that similar? It made the context sound very religious.....
>>
>> My Southern friend (southern part of the United States, for those
>> who have been asking -- Virginia, to be more precise) says both
>> "IN-surance" and "RE-ceipt." He's the only person I've ever known
>> to say either of those words the way he does.
>
>first-syllable pronunciation is Jim Lehrer (PBS newshour), who is (IINM)
>from Oklahoma.
Kansas, actually. He was actually used as an example in a sociolinguist-
ics class I once had. The professor played a tape of him interviewing a
Deep South politician (who began every sentence with, "Waaaail,...").
Lehrer speaks first, in an accent just a hair off general Midwestern, to
introduce his guest. The politician says a sentence in his broad Southron
speech, and when Lehrer asks his next question, his accent has shifted to
the point where he sounds fresh off the farm.
>Other Southerner broadcasters, like Dan Rather, have
>generally buried or smoothed the edges from their accents.
While listening to Senator Hollings' acceptance speech last night, it oc-
curred to me that this is the man who posters who claim they can't dis-
tinguish USAmerican regional accents should listen to. His cultivated
Charleston accent brought the only hint of joy to Britt Hume's Eeyore face
all evening.
JNugent231
["garage"]
>In Britain, some people actually do rhyme it with
>"carriage"
Most do actually. "garARGE" is usually regarded as an affectation.