Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

Yoon Ha Lee scripsit:

> <embarrassed look>  What's Wolof and where's it spoken, or by whom?
It is a national (though not official) language of Senegal and to a lesser
extent the Gambia in West Africa.  It is also spoken in France, presumably
by expatriates.

> Er...where can I find a definition of "syllable-timed" rhythm?
Roughly it means that all syllables are isochronous, i.e. take an equal
amount of time to enunciate.   In English and the Germanic languages
generally, the rhythm is stress-timed; i.e., there is roughly an
equal amount of time between *stressed* syllables.

For example:

        the girl with the LONG DRESS
        has a LONGer adDRESS

the stressed syllables "LONG...DRESS" have roughly equal time between
them in both cases.  In a syllable-timed language, this would not
be the case.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter