CONtract/conTRACT

[Dennis R. Preston]

Many of us Southerners eschew fancy-pants Romance stress rules and go
for a root (or even misunderstood as root) earlier syllable. I bet
them good ol- CON-tract speakers are also

CE-ment
ICE-cream
UM-brella
and even
TEN-nessee

speakers.

It ain't slipping; it's done slupt.

dInIs

>I have heard several spokespersons talk about the victims who have
>CON-tracted anthrax. My understanding has always been that you CON-tract
>with someone for a sale or service, but you con-TRACT a disease. Is this
>ideosyncratic or is this proper susage that is just slipping. (It seems
>to be the same people who constantly say "as best we can.")
>
>D

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736