....the lion

[Beverly Flanigan]

Oops--I missed the stress shift.  See you at ADS!

At 06:31 PM 12/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>At 5:35 PM -0500 12/30/02, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>>Maybe I missed something:  Were the NPR people really talking rhymes or
>>games, or was the name used seriously??
>
>Hi, Beverly,
>
>No, the idea of the limerick was from Peter Richardson and me
>(independently, although he was the one who actually tried one out--I
>had trouble coming up with a third rhyme); evidently the
>"an-DROC-uh-leez" pronunciation was seriously uttered on NPR.  My
>response here to you was that the schwa insertion may be
>phonologically motivated but the stress shift indicates unfamiliarity
>with the name.
>
>Larry
>
>>
>>At 02:43 PM 12/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>>>Beverly writes:
>>>
>>>>Schwa insertion is very normal and generally unnoticed by speakers.  Some
>>>>may monitor themselves and "correct" the pronunciation in certain
>>>>circumstances, but pronunciation is usually so deeply ingrained it's not a
>>>>big deal to the speaker--if a hearer raises eyebrows (as Mark did) or
>>>>repeats the word, maybe the user would change it, but probably not.  That's
>>>>why I was wondering who used the form, and whether there was a pause or
>>>>other reaction on the part of the hearer.
>>>>
>>>>It's most definitely not "substandard" or "illiterate"; it represents a
>>>>normal phonological process, much like its opposite, elision, as in
>>>>"s'pose" or "gonna."
>>>
>>>Well, yes to all the above, BUT there's something more going on if
>>>"Androcles" is pronounced so as to rhyme (as we've been saying) with
>>>"broccolis".  There's also stress shift, suggesting that (unlike
>>>schwa insertion in clusters like those in "fil[uh]m" or
>>>"jewel[uh]ry", for example) this is in fact the result of someone
>>>reading a word/name they've never actually heard pronounced rather
>>>than a phonological process per se.