Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: word separation (was:Hobbits spoke ?)

From:J. 'Mach' Wust <j_mach_wust@...>
Date:Saturday, October 30, 2004, 9:25
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 10:01:05 +0100, Joe <joe@...> wrote:

>Marshall and Endemann wrote: > >>on 30/10/04 9:07 PM, J. 'Mach' Wust at j_mach_wust@YAHOO.COM wrote: >> >>>But 'oil cloth' and 'oilcloth' are the same. >> >>Not the way I say them - as with black bird as opposed to blackbird, the >>two words contain more or less equal stress and duration. In the compound >>word the second syllable has significantly less stress and shorter >>duration than the first. The meanings are different too - 'oilcloth', a >>kind of linen (or cotton?) impregnated with oil - 'oil cloth' a cloth for >>cleaning up oil. >> >>Or maybe that's only Kiwi usage? > >No, English too. 'a black bird' is different to 'a blackbird'.
Then I was mistaken. However, the difference is in the stress patterns (and in the phonetic changes they trigger), not in some kind of 'hiat' between them. gry@s: j. 'mach' wust