Pronunciation Questions

[John F. Schwaller]

At 04:41 PM 2/21/2007, you wrote:
>I prefer to use *uppercase* letters to mark syllables whose
>quantities are long, rather than syllables bearing primary or
>secondary stress.  Words in Nawatl take on different senses
>depending on whether they have long or short vowels.  The
>same thing can't be said of words whose sole differences
>are the locations of their syllabic stress.
>
>For that reason, it is far more important to dwell on the matter
>of vocalic length than syllabic stress.


Two things.
1.  You are absolutely correct that vowel length is more important 
than secondary stress, although with classical texts where vowel 
length was not noted, we have to do the best we can.
2.  The convention that we use here on the list is to place a colon 
following the long vowel (since many computer mail programs do not 
allow us to use character sets that include a macron), and use CAPS for stress.

Examples:
te:-MO-a: [long e, long a, stress on the mo] - to seek something
or
te-MO:-hua [long o, stress on the mo] - for descent to take place




John F. Schwaller
President
SUNY Potsdam
44 Pierrepont Ave.
Potsdam, NY  13676

315-267-2100
315-267-2496 fax

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