Re: Metrical Stress, Feet, etc.

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> MJR> My mistake - "realized" is three syllables, although pronounced as two
> MJR> in some dialects (mine included, obviously).
>
> TM> I'm not sure I get that. Isn't it more accurate to say it's two syllables
> TM> in your dialect, but three in others?
>
> Yes, except that English words have an official syllabification which is
> used as the guide for breaking words across line boundaries in formal
> writing.  If I were writing a paper, I could legally break it up as "re-
> alized" even though I don't pronounce it that way.
Ooh, well, the 'official' syllabication isn't official, isn't
syllabification, and isn't English's. That is, there's no body that has
decreed that this is the correct way, it's actually finding hyphenation
points, and it differs on each side of the Atlantic.

> > (dia/lect, rea/lised, in/terest are all two syllables for me, as is ta/le)
>
> YAEPT alert. :)  I've never heard "dialect" as two syllables, although
> "interest" is two for me as well.  'Round these here parts, I would
> say that "tale" has about 1.5 syllables, being neither quite [tej:l] nor
> ['tej@l] but somewhere in between.
Yes, I've heard another American propose 1.5 syllables there. I really
have no idea what half a syllable might be, though.

--
Tristan

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