Re: noun compounds

Gah, hate to use up another post replying to myself, but I just
thought of some more odd examples.   IML: "doorman" is 'door'man, with
a clear /m&n/ at the end, not /m@n/.  (I note that this was also true
when pronounced by "Carlton" on the old "Rhoda" show, who always said
"This is Carlton?  Your doorman?" on the intercom).

 The same goes for 'mail'man.  But I don't know why that is; most -man
words have reduced vowels: airm@n, bellm@n, bondsm@n, crewm@n, etc.
When discussing baseball, the guy at first is the "first basem@n"
(equal stress on "first" and "base")..  But the guy behind the camera
in the studio is the "camera m&n"...

I assume tnat the unstressed -m@n is the default and the exceptions
have just been lexicalized that way for some reason...


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>