Re: OT: German reputation

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 10:14:30 -0500, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:

>On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 08:32:43AM -0500, J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:
>> /'di.os/ is not a Spanish word.
>
>Huh?  Yes it is.  That is how you pronounce the Spanish word
>for God: |díos| = /'di.os/.
Have a look at at the diccionary of the Real Academia Española:
http://buscon.rae.es/diccionario/drae.htm . You might be mixing it up with
Italian, which indeed stressed the word /'di.o/ on the first syllable, and
where this word is pronounced trisyllabic: [a'd:i:.(j)o].

>> In very slow speech, you can of course seperate the word into two
>> syllable, just as you could do with English words like /mjuz/:
>> [mi.'(j)u:z].
>
>No, it's not the same.  Pronouncing "muse" as you indicate is very odd
>and marked; whereas I regularly hear native Spanish speakers say /a.di'os/
>as 3 syllables, even though the rules for Spanish diphthongs  we were
>taught in school would make it /a'djos/ (or maybe /ad'jos/).
>
>On the other hand, I suppose it could just be my ear inserting a
>syllable because [Dj] is an odd cluster for me - even when I say
>/a'djos/ it sounds trisyllabic to me.
There's not much difference between a [j] and a [i], especially not before
vowels, so the question whether it's considered a syllable on its own is
rather based on non-phonetic arguments (as are other phonological/phonemical
questions).

kry@s:
j. 'mach' wust

Replies