Re: dialectal diversity in English

--- Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...>
wrote:
> I know a bit of Mandarin but nothing of Sichuan; but
> when I first began
> studying German, I was surprised how unintelligable
> my teachers found even
> one shift of stress in polysyllabic words. I can't
> remember a specific real
> example, but it was similar to saying [ar\"bait@n]
> instead of ["ar\bait@n]
> in _Wo arbeiten Sie?_.
>
Well, quite honestly, they *might* have been putting
on.  I do that sometimes in my classes.  Wghen a
student's pronunciation is only marginally
intelligible (due to whatever reason) I'll act like I
simply don't understand and force them to repeat their
utterance.  That way they (hopefully) learn better
pronunciation.  Also, I know that after years of
exposure to Chinese English in various forms I am very
tollerant of their typical phonetic diviations, but
other Americans, etc. with less exposure really WILL
find their speech difficult to comprehend.  So you
could have been getting some of the same form your
teachers. *g*

Adam