Post by CDBPost by Peter T. DanielsI heard the word the first time in the explanation
this weekend -- remember when Athel's knickers got all
in a twist when I mentioned that the most usual -- the
"unmarked" -- position for stress in English is on the
penult?
English got stressmarks?
"Unmarked" in linguistics refers to a "basic", most "normal" way
of saying something, unless one has special reasons to do
otherwise. See, Peter even added an explanation in the above!
My point was that it's a silly term to use on a language that
doesn't mark stress. What point is there anyway, in adding a
specialised word not part of the common language to explain a
perfectly clear description ("most usual")?
Sorry for trying to expand your horizon. I have learned dozens of
specialized words in this group which are unnecessary in ordinary
conversations, and don't feel that I suffered much from it.
I say ['anti,fa] from "anti" and "fa(scist). That's not the "a"
of "fascist", but let them try to correct me and they will see
how far they get.
Well, do you say [haifi] and [saifi] There were people around in
Germany back in the day claiming that that's how you should say
it (hi-fi and sci-fi, that is, in case of doubt.)
Is that in German or Gerlish? I said above that I do not use the
vowel of the original full form.
I was handing you an argument.
OK, thank you. I will try to figure out how that works.
In the meantime, were the people who voted for [haifi] talking about a
German pronunciation or a German-influenced English pronunciation*
(theirs, IOW)?
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*Which I avoided calling GermE because I am an inoffensive creature and
bigly peaceable by nature.
I get lost in your definitions, so I answer based on my own.
English. Nobody serious questioned the [ai] in the first syllable,
even though that does not follow German spelling rules. If you
wanted to be funny, you'd adapt the spelling, e.g. "heifei".
English speakers say it, because the "fi" stands for "fidelity".
pronunciation" which are based on no actual evidence.