tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post8343343885405478653..comments2024-03-17T09:14:13.950+00:00Comments on John Wells’s phonetic blog: corpus preferencesJohn Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13684304410735867148noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-56529616286012082772009-06-05T23:18:06.755+01:002009-06-05T23:18:06.755+01:00My father (Japanese, aged 86) says that when he wa...My father (Japanese, aged 86) says that when he was a university student in Japan, /kən'trɒvəsi/ (or maybe /-sɪ/ in those days) was the only pronunciation taught for "controversy". When I was a university student (about 30 years ago), /'kɒntrəvɜː(r)si/ was referred to as American. Today, I always tell my students the former is on the way out.<br />In my father’s days, teachers of English in Japan got delighted when they found an English word whose pronunciation was difficult to guess from the spelling. Thus "forehead", for example, was always their source of happiness, because the knowledge that it was pronounced /'fɒrɪd/ was a kind of scholarly privilege they were proud to have. They chuckled with satisfaction when a learner of English pronounced the word /'fɔːhed/. They would lament the fact that what they proudly pointed out as an example of layman’s mispronunciation is now preferred by the majority of the native speakers of English. But, like it or not, language is constantly changing. That’s why it is interesting to study, isn’t it?Shigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11064218668792306369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-55668084648281194072009-06-05T13:11:08.551+01:002009-06-05T13:11:08.551+01:00Apropos Nigel Greenwood's comment on the eleph...Apropos Nigel Greenwood's comment on the elephant statue, it may be worth noting (mainly for the benefit of those too young to remember the '60s) that the title of Kenneth Tynan's revue "Oh Calcutta!" was also a pun on the french "cul" (O, quelle cul tu as!).Chaa006https://www.blogger.com/profile/00007714578401273047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-73422943413435078742009-06-04T23:07:41.812+01:002009-06-04T23:07:41.812+01:00@ S.C. Anderson: I couldn't possibly describe ...@ S.C. Anderson: I couldn't possibly describe this as an argument in favor of initial syllable stress in "controversy"; but as a matter of interest, that is the only pronunciation Daniel Jones listed in his first pronouncing dictionary (1917). By the fifth edition (1943), he listed first-syllable stress first, and second-syllable stress as an alternate pronunciation. Unfortunately, I don't have editions 2, 3, or 4, so cannot give you a reasonable date range for when the second-syllable pronunciation came into vogue.Amy Stollerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14067839246823753590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-79022364064590035752009-06-04T22:10:07.523+01:002009-06-04T22:10:07.523+01:00PS For any readers unfamiliar with colloquial Fren...PS For any readers unfamiliar with colloquial French, I should explain that <i>les quatre sans cul</i> means "the backside-less / arseless / assless four" (only the fronts of the elephants are visible on the monument).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01798406038550391203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-82043709414310711732009-06-04T21:07:44.592+01:002009-06-04T21:07:44.592+01:00As you probably know, the elephant statue at the t...As you probably know, the elephant statue at the top of today's blog is commonly known as <i>les quatre sans cul</i> /le katʁə sɑ̃ ky/ or informally /le kat sɑ̃ ky/ -- a punning reference to the phrase <i>(faire) les quatre cents coups</i> /le katʁə sɑ̃ ku/ or /le kat sɑ̃ ku/(roughly "to raise hell/sow your wild oats"). <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Quatre_Cents_Coups" rel="nofollow"><i>Les Quatre Cents Coups</i></a> is a well-known film by Truffaut.<br /><br />Phonetically, the pun is interesting in that /u/ and /y/ are too distinct in French to lend themselves readily to puns. In this case, however, the rest of the phrase is sufficient to make the pun work.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01798406038550391203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-57136865470090841052009-06-04T20:25:49.460+01:002009-06-04T20:25:49.460+01:00Because it's the way sensible people (i.e. Yan...Because it's the way sensible people (i.e. Yanks) say it. :-)John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-30740302294599573842009-06-04T18:16:20.552+01:002009-06-04T18:16:20.552+01:00Is there an argument for initial stress in 'co...Is there an argument for initial stress in 'controversy'?<br /><br />Why are the BBC so eager to encourage it?S.C. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04325161546290294854noreply@blogger.com