1937 emper-or (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Mar 20, 2009, at 8:36 AM, Bill Mullins wrote:

> In the 1970's kid show "Shazam!", Billy referred to Mentor with the
> strong emphasis on the last syllable.
>
> And in the 1978 "Superman" movie, Ned Beatty (Otis) constantly spoke
> of
> Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor) as "Mr. Luthor" with the same
> pronounciation.

i don't know after "Shazam!", but i'm pretty sure that the "Superman"
pronunciation of "Luthor" had secondary, not primary, accent on the
final syllable (other characters had an unaccented final syllable).

this is true for most (though not all) of the examples we've been
discussing.  if you normally have an unaccented final syllable in
these words, you'll find the secondary accent noticeable, and might be
tempted to interpret it as primary accent.

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org