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stranger
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Is there a term that fits words which change their meaning with a shift in syllabic emphasis, and how many of these words can you come up with? For instance, INvalid means one thing, but in VALid means another. Ditto offense, project, secreted, and combine.
Thank you for your help.
G'PaKen
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Pooh-Bah
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Welcome. Good question but I have no idea what the answer is.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Don't have the answer to your question, kofga, but welcome aBoard. Are you from Georgia, by any chance--if you feel like saying, that is? I'll take a guess that you're from the South, at least.
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(am picking the 'how many?' option as I know I don't know the word to describe them!)
How about adding these to the list:
resort
desert
import
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enthusiast
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heteronym or hertograph. http://www.startwright.com/words1.htmAnd this has all kinds of other interesting words about words. And I found it because I was going to coin the term isonym (like isotope) but a google found isonym already in use at this web site. I am adding the site to my url list. Looks like a fun place to browse. TEd
TEd
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Hi kofga We have a number of technical terms to describe the properties of word ambiguities of this general kind, and you can often apply two descriptions to a particular class of words. The kissing-cousin terms follow Greek descriptions, based on homo~ (same) and hetero~ (different), plus the descriptions of sound (~phone), name (~nym), and writing (~graph). ‘Homograph’ describes one of a pair of words spelled the same but different in meaning or derivation or pronunciation. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=homograph A subset of these ambiguous words is the homonym: a word that is pronounced and spelled the same way as another, but that has a different meaning, such as bat as in "fruit bat" or "bat and ball". The general type you are referring to is known as a heteronym: one of two (or more) words that have the same spelling, but have different pronunciation and meaning – for example "bow" as in "bow of a ship" or "bow and arrow". In other words, heteronyms are heterophonic homographs :) http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=heteronymThere are two main types of heteronym I know of: ‘grammatical function’ heteronyms and true heteronyms. An example of the former type (when essentially the same word is forming a different part of speech) is a sentence like this: • Produce: These factories produce the produce that is shipped abroad.In this use of produce and similar two-syllable words you will see that in almost every case the noun is stressed on the first syllable, and the verb is stressed on the second (e.g. noun: CON-test; verb: con-TEST). Some of these examples, such as ‘abuse’ and ‘abuse’, do not change their stress pattern: the words differ by the pronunciation of the /s/. In one form (the verb) it is voiced [like zzz}, and in the other (the noun) it is voiceless [like sss]. It can also be a verb/adjective pair: • Perfect: The overture took years to perfect, but eventually it was perfect. It can also occur through change of tense - the present tense and past tense forms of the verb to read are pronounced differently but spelled identically: • I want to read the sequel today because I read the first book yesterday.In the grammatical function heteronyms, the pronunciation is certainly different in the ways analysed, but arguably the meaning is still very close. In true heteronyms, the meaning and pronunciation are both unique: • Sewer: As the sewer sat sewing her silk, she smelled the stench of a slimy sewer.Here’s a great sample! "There are seven heteronyms in the following passage: 'Heteronyms must incense foreign learners! I can't imagine a number feeling than if they spent hours learning a common English word, a minute little word, then found a second meaning and pronunciation! Surely agape could not be a foreigner's emotion as he or she becomes frustrated with our supply textured English words, which, we must admit, can be garbage and refuse to be defined' (opening to 'Heteronyms', David Bergeron, English Today 24, Oct. 1990)."(from The Oxford Companion to the English Language) I guess there is a case for a word to narrowly define the subset of heteronyms formed only by different syllabic emphasis, but I haven’t personally encountered it yet… Heterosyllabiphonic heteronyms?! There are some three-way heteronyms too. Can anyone get some?
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enthusiast
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"Agape" - a word that is still not fully anglicised, and is little used outside religious contexts, in which its Greekness is normally self-evident. Personally, I think that its inclusion in the list of heteronyms was cheating.
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There are some three-way heteronyms too. Can anyone get some?
lather
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> lather
badabing, badaboom :)
That's the only one I ever remember unprompted, though I've got a few others scribbled down in notes somewhere. I seem to remember feeling less than satisfied by some of the offerings but!
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lather
I get two of them.
As for mav's OED quote, I don't believe second works in USn English.
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Along with "badabing, badaboom" does one receive, perhaps, a small engraved trophy or a certificate suitable for framing?
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> engraved trophy or a certificate
Is that a stright-faced reply to the original poster, FS? If so , you're a scholar and a gentleman, for I was rather rude to preempt it with my extension to three-way heteronyms! I encourage everyone to contribute more of those 'two~sies' to our esteemed new member :)
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> I don't believe second works in USn English
Really? hmm, how do you say secondment or the similar forms?
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how do you say secondment
Huh? How do I say what?
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How strange - I hadn't realised you poor guys were impoverished by the absence of this word! :)
second (SEND)
verb [T] UK
to send an employee to work somewhere else temporarily, either to increase the number of workers or to replace other workers, or to exchange experience or skills:
During the dispute, many police officers were seconded from traffic duty to the prison service.
secondment
noun [C or U] UK
His involvement with the project began when he was on (a) secondment from NASA to the European Space Agency.
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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yeahbut, how do you say it?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Unfortunately it would not let me paste the fonetig representation. Lemme see ~
seh~CONDm'nt
edit: on further analysis, it may be a little closer to sih~CONDm'nt
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formerly known as etaoin...
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se/ih~CONDm'nt
Irregardless, the addition of a suffix renders it hors concours.
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second (SEND)
verb [T] UK
seh~COND
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That one has not, apparently, made its way to this side of the pond.
I've read it in many a novel by people from your side, and have had context to tell me what it means. But never heard it pronounced before.
Makes me wonder what other words there are like that in "your" novels. But how would we know unless we got a book on tape (UGH!!!!!!)
TEd
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(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
Thanks, Mav, for giving USns the benefit of the doubt! ;-)
(I'd also never heard this pronunciation/usage before)
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I guess I'd better get a Beginning Learner's Dictionary. I cannot believe this. All my life I have pronounced second with the accent on the first syllable, including for the meaning as a duelist's back-up. And apparently none of my teachers knew any better, because I was never corrected on it. But I listened to the pronunciation at this site, and oh my gosh. I have NEVER heard it pronounced this way: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary Here's another first: when I tested that link--three times--, I got a window that said merely: No arguments in request. So I suppose anyone who wants proof of the second-syllable accent will have to go there (Merriam-Webster) or somewhere on their own. Sorry.
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Yeahbut® Jackie, I gather the only time it's pronounced this way is in the definition Mav posted:
"to send an employee to work somewhere else temporarily, either to increase the number of workers or to replace other workers, or to exchange experience or skills"
If you're not familiar with the usage then you wouldn't be familiar with the pronunciation, yes?
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>I have NEVER heard it pronounced this way
write me in for three.
formerly known as etaoin...
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the only time it's pronounced this way is in the definition Mav posted No; in M-W, it's the pronunciation given for:
Main Entry: 4second
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Latin secundare, from secundus second, favorable
1 a : to give support or encouragement to : ASSIST b : to support (a fighting person or group) in combat : bring up reinforcements for
2 a : to support or assist in contention or debate b : to endorse (a motion or a nomination) so that debate or voting may begin
3 /si-'känd/ chiefly British : to release (as a military officer) from a regularly assigned position for temporary duty with another unit or organization
- sec·ond·er noun Trying the link one more time: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
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formerly known as etaoin...
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All AHD4 has on it with emPHAsis on the secOND sylLAble is: Chiefly British To transfer (a military officer for example) temporarily.
This is getting curiouser and curiouser!
Edit: Jackie, you're misreading the M-W entry. Only definition 3 is preceded by /si-'känd/
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Jackie, you're misreading the M-W entry. Only definition 3 is preceded by /si-'känd/ Oh thank heavens! P.S.--I'm glad one of us knows what I'm doing! 
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Well, I love this place ~ all these years we've been yammering away and we can still turn up pockets of the language that surprise us in our assumptions! :]
I would never have guessed that this was peculiar to the UK side of the pond ~ how about Tasmansylvania and other territories?
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Peculiar's the word, all right...
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Funny, in French we say secondement to mean secondly.
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> the word keep studying gal, and you too can learn to speak English! 
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Actually, this word HAS made it to this side of the pond - I once worked for Transport Canada as a temp and was seconded to another office than the one that originally employed me. Only in Canada, you say? Pity.
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Pooh-Bah
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I've heard USns say "secondment" meaning a temporary transfer. Guess it depends on who you talk to ...
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The military use of the term secondment was lost to the use of the abbreviations TAD (meaning Temporary Additional Duty) and TDY (meaning Temporary Duty).
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Dunno about the Kiwis, but here is Oz seCOND is used as per British.
BTW the normal variation on Tasmania is Taswegia - no idea why and I must say Tasmansylvania conjures up an apposite image of forests
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the normal variation on Tasmania is Taswegia Wha-at?! Why on earth...??? This reminds me of Glaswegians, but man is not gow and the city is not Glasgowia, and I don't know why it changes to Glaswegians anyway.
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