Phrasal Stress

English word stress is not fixed. It can appear on the first syllable of the word, the final syllable or intermediary syllables. In addition to word stress, phrasal stress is also important. Let us consider a few examples.

In noun phrases, the noun usually has the most stress. In the noun phrase a new computer, the noun computer is usually stressed more than the other words in the phrase. If the word new is stressed the most, it is to emphasize that the computer is new.

The adjective usually has the most stress in adjective phrases  In the adjective phrase very fast, the adjective fast usually has the most stress. If the word very is stressed, it is to emphasize the adverb very.

In verb phrases with an auxiliary verb and a main verb, the main verb usually has the most stress. For example, in the verb phrase is studying, the verb studying is usually stressed the most. If the auxiliary is carries the main stress, it is for emphasis. If speaker A stated "He isn't sleeping, is he?, speaker A could answer, "Yes, he is sleeping" and stress the word is to assure speaker A that it was true.

Word stress is very important in /English. However, stress also occurs beyong the word and also extends to phrases, clauses and verbs. Phrasal stress occurs at the phrasal level in phrases such as noun phrases, adjective phrases and verb phrases.

Pronunciation of Spanish Letter ll

The Spanish letter ll is a digraph. This means that the two letters produce one sound. It is common in many Spanish words and can occur word-initially and word-medially. However, the sound can vary

For most Spanish speakers the ll is the palatal approximant. It is the sound which occurs in English words such as yellow, yesterday and you. However, in certain dialects, it is deleted intervocalically in words such as ardilla (squirrel) grillo (cricket) and silla (chair).

Many Spanish speakers pronounce the ll as the voiced alveopalatal affricate. It is not restricted to one country but can be heard in many regions.

The ll can also represent the palatal lateral. It is the original sound of the letter, but is no longer used by most Spanish speakers. However, it is common in Paraguay and parts of Peru and Bolivia.

In Uruguay and most of Argentina, the ll is the voiceless alveopalatal fricative. The sound is associated with the Rioplatense dialect. In Argentina, though less common than the voiceless alveopalatal fricative, a number of speakers use the voiced alveopalatal fricative.

Most Spanish speakers pronounce the letter ll as the palatal approximant. However, the pronunciation varies from one dialect to another. It can also be the voiced alveopalatal affricate, the palatal lateral and the alveopalatal fricative.

Explanation of the Southern Accent with Minimal Pairs

The southern accent is an American accent which is spoken in many states of the southern USA. It differs significantly from that of standard American English. One difference is the pronunciation of the diphthong in words such as time and nice. In the southern accent many speakers use a monophthong. However, it is not the vowel heard in words such as hat and dance. 

The vowel in words such as hat and dance is a low front vowel. However, in words such as time and nice, the southern accent uses a low central vowel. The result is that the following words are clearly distinguished in the southern accent:

a/I

back/bike

bat/bite

cat/kite

fan/fine

had/hide

laugh/life

sad/side

sight/sat

vine/van

A common misperception of the southern accent is that the words illustrated are pronounced the same. However, this is inaccurate. Words such as cat and laugh have a low front vowel, and words such as kite and lfe have a low central vowel. The difference in tongue position results in different pronunciations.

Hungarian Loanwords in Slovak

Hungarian has borrowed many words from Slavic languages. However, Slavic languages have also borrowed words from Hungarian.  To illustrate, here is a list of ten Slovak words borrowed from Hungarian. The Slovak word is on the left, and the Hungarian word is on the right.

ceruza ceruza (pencil)

čizma csizma (boot)

ďumbier gyömbér (ginger)

gombik gomb (button)

jarok árok (ditch)

kefa kefe (brush)

tábor tábor (camp)

palacinka palacsinta (pancake)

ťava teve (camel)

vidiek vidék (countryside)

The words are very similar. In fact, three are identical. Though Hungarian has undoubtedly borrowed more words from Slovak, it is clear from the list that Slovak has also borrowed words from Hungarian.

The Goose and the Golden Egg

One of Aesop's fables is The Goose and the Golden Egg. The fable tells us that we should be satisfied with what we have. If we become greedy, we may lose what we have.

In the fable, a farmer has the most wonderful goose he can imagine. Every day he visits the nest, and it leaves him a beautiful, glittering golden egg.

The farmer takes the eggs to the market, and he soon becomes very rich. But it is not long before he becomes impatient with the goose because it gives him only a single golden egg a day. He feels he is not becoming rich fast enough.

One day, after he has finished counting his money, the idea comes to him that he can collect all the golden eggs at once by killing the goose and cutting it open. However, he does not find a single egg and realizes that his precious goose is dead. His greed is the reason he has no more golden eggs.

The fable teaches a valuable lesson. It is to be grateful for what we have and to be patient. If the farmer had been wiser, he would not have  killed his goose.

Croatian Word-Initial Consonant Clusters

Croatian is a Slavic language. One characteristic of Slavic languages is the large number of consonant clusters. Let us illustrate the permissible word-initial consonant clusters of Croatian with ten words.

gdje (who)

hvala (thank you)

knjiga (book)

mlijeko (milk)

ptica (bird)

tko (who)

vjelar (wind)

zdravo (hello)

žlica (spoon)

zvijezda (star)

The ten words have consonant clusters which do not occur in English. Many Croatian consonant clusters also appear word-medially and word-finally. All Slavic languages allow a large number of consonant clusters. This is evident in the list of Croatian words.

German False Cognates

German and English are both Germanic languages. They share many common words. However, a number of words are false cognates. They look the same as English words, but they do not have the same meaning. Here is a list of ten false cognates:

also (thus)

bald (soon)

fast (almost)

das Gift (the poison)

die Hose (the pants)

der Hut (the hat)

die Pest (the plague)

der Rat (the advice)

der Sender (the broadcaster)

die Wand (the wall)

German nouns are always capitalized. The article das is for neuter nouns, die is for feminine ones, and der is for masculine ones. Most of the false cognates from the list are nouns, but three are adverbs.