"centre metres" (was: eggcorn candidate: "center meters")

[Damien Hall]

At 10:18 PM -0500 12/17/09, Herb Stahlke wrote:
> I'm not sure, but I suspect that even in BrE there would be stresses
> on the first syllables of "center" and "meter."

And Larry asked:

'Are there any such speakers who could chime in on whether "6 center
meters" and "6 centimeters" would be distinguished in normal speech,
and if so how?'

I (Standard Southern British English) suspect that in allegro speech these
wouldn't be distinguished: ['sEnt@"mit at z] (where of course <'> stands for
primary and <"> for secondary stress). I think this holds for me and other
speakers of approximately my variety.

In slightly more careful / slower speech, if that was ever used, there
might be a difference, _viz._

'centre metres' = ['sEnt@"mit at z]

'centimetres' = ['sEntI"mit at z] (or, in place of the [I], a barred-i)

But that's introspection and therefore unreliable, and may also be a
spelling pronunciation, of course. I dudpect that the most important thing
I've said in this post is in the first sentence.

Sorry for the delay in replying; I usually only see ADS-L posts once a day
(in the morning digest).

Damien

--
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
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UK

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