CONtract/conTRACT

[Duane Campbell]

On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 13:51:11 -0500 "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

And GEE-tar. But I guess I didn't make my question clear. Does anyone use
BOTH pronunciations but differentiate depending on meaning? For example,
I would CON-tract for lawn care but con-TRACT a disease. Well, I hope I
wouldn't do either, but you get the point.

D