Re: USAGE: syllables

Hi!

John Cowan <cowan@...> writes:
> Daniel Andreasson Vpc-Work scripsit:
>
> > Yes, [n] and [l] are very similar. It's almost impossible to tell
> > them apart on a spectrogram for instance. And I can't tell you
> > how many times I've misheard _juni_ 'June' and _juli_ 'July'! :)
Same in German (or did you mean that)?  For clarity, there are
alternative forms /ju:"no:/ and /ju:"laI/.  These are usually not
written forms, and usually, as given, shift the stress to the last
syllable (the standard variants would be /"ju:ni:/ and /"ju:li:/).

> The old pronunciation of "July", viz. ["dZulI], was in use right
> up through the 19th century, but AFAIK all dialects have now
> shifted to [dZ@"lai] (or local equivalent),
What a coincidence, isn't it? :-) Only English does not bother to
change the spelling, of course, which would be unthinkable in German.

**Henrik

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