CONtract/conTRACT

[Ellen Johnson]

and don't forget the one that troubles me most, given the academic
context in which I find myself and my propensity to use the regional
(stigmatized?) form:
REsearch vs. reSEARCH.

Ellen Johnson
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Dept. of English, Rhetoric, and Writing
Berry College, Box 350
Mt. Berry, GA 30149
706-368-5638
http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson/
ejohnson at berry.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis R. Preston [mailto:preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 1:51 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: CONtract/conTRACT


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