Re: OT: YAEPT: emphasis

On 6/22/06, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> >...
> > "Permit?  I don't need any damned permits!  How can you get a damned
> > permit to do a damned illegal thing?!"
> >
> > Throughout the above he consistently says /p@r'mIt/, rather than
> > /'p@r.mIt/.  And at least IML, the noun is always the latter; the
> > former is the verb.
>
> Ouch.  Even my L2 brain screams in agony here.  What have I learned
> the difference for, after all? :-P  (To me, "One per'mit" sounds like a
> constructed word denoting one event of permitting.)
>
> **Henrik
>
Realise that the shift of emphasis from the second syllable to the
first, but only in the noun, is a relatively recent phenomenon for a
great many English words. When I was growing up in the 60s, for
example, "address" and "defence" were stressed on the second syllable,
whether noun or verb. Now the nouns are usually stressed on the first
syllable by the younger folk, and sportscasters. [AmE].

For some other words, this split happened a long time ago, admittedly.
But for these examples and many others, the process is underway right
now.

---larry

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