eviDENTly, apparentLY

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 22, 2012, at 10:01 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> Seems odd, now that I think of it, that I've been hearing and saying
> "eviDENTly" routinely for these several decades, but not "eviDENT". Like
> LH, I can do "EVidently" too.
>
> Maybe the stress doesn't like to be too far from the end of the word
> sometimes ("hosPITably", "forMIDably", "exQUISitely" [these I don't know
> that I use], "deSPICably" [this I do]). I'm sure this is authoriTATively
> explained somewhere?
>
> Is the "eviDENTly" pronunciation used all over the Anglosphere or is it
> regional? I don't see it in DARE. I see it in MW3.
>
It's in AHD as well as the second pronunciation listed, but without the restriction I mentioned (which may or may not be widely shared, either among other NYC speakers or more generally), i.e. that the penult stress version is restricted to one-word rejoinders.  I've also heard (and maybe used) "apparently" pronounced with *final* stress in the same ("So it seems") context: "apparent-LEE".  Weird.  Is that one included in *any* compendium?  Am I hallucinating it?

LH

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