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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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"She was just a stableman's daughter, and all the horsemen knew her."
I'll give *you three guesses where that came from... and the last two don't count.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Clue me in, musick. You know I don't understand *half of what you say.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
There is something wonderous about Suthrin accents... a friend of mine from the Deep South manages to make several sylables out of my name - Ann.
She was always surprised that I knew at once who was calling me.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Which half?  If I told you "it was Dr Bill" would you believe me or would you think it was someone else who said *those words.
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
I think it's got one long syllable, ie with a long vowel.
With absolutely no reference to texts / teachings beyond what I can remember at this point (and no quality guarantees on that!!!)
- there are 'pure vowels' and 'diphthongs', which are basically combinations where the vowel sound moves from one to another. 'tail' has a diphthong as the sound moves from 'a' to 'y' (yeah, I know it's a half-vowel technically, BUT! And I've just been leading the Latin thread and remember they thought 'i' and 'y' were the same.)
- there are also short and long vowels.
- pure vowels are generally short. cat, vet, pin, hot, but, huh. But (I think) there are occasionally long ones too - too as opposed to took, hoop as opposed to hood.
Off topic, but Latin poetic meter is all about arrangements of long vs short vowels/syllables, whereas English meter is focused on stress/emphasis.
- and of course as the examples above illustrate, English spelling is such a mishmash that many 'long' syllables are written with one vowel in them and many 'short' ones with two. Pity the foreign language student - especially those whose native tongue orthography handles vowel length better! There is a famous pronunciation book for teachers of English as a second language 'Do you say ship or sheep?'
...Jackie, is there any difference for you between the number of syllables in 'tail' and the number of syllables in 'tale'?
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>pure vowels are generally short. cat, vet, pin,
Around here, Bridget, you are likely to hear:
caey-ut
vae-it
pee-in.
I heard a guy once tell his friend behind the wheel, "OK, put ee-it ee-in payark."
TEd
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
is there any difference for you between the number of syllables in 'tail' and the number of syllables in 'tale'? No--speaking fast or speaking slow, they're both tay-ul. * *For any of you who may not realize it, there is a very large difference between the way northern US'n's speak and the way southern ones do. Kentucky leans strongly towards the southern in this respect. She was always surprised that I knew at once who was calling me. 
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
An aquaintance of mine has said that since her step-daughter turned 12, there are no more one-syllable words in her vocabulary. No becomes NO-wah Yes, yeh-sa Go, go-wah And all are usually said with a rolling of the eyes and a "parents are so-ah stupid" sigh.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Hereabouts, "tail" has just one syllable of middling length. In fact, there is a city ordinance against anything more. "Y'all," however, though seldom used, has two.
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
"tail" has just one syllable of middling length. In fact, there is a city ordinance against anything more.
Is that a fact? And do they tail people to make sure they don't say "tay-ul"? And throw your - um, tail - in jail if you do? What if someone tailing you says "tay-ul"? Can you turn tail and tail them? Or throw their tail in jail?
What a very interesting community you must live in!
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