Re: Primary and secondary stress in pt-PT


António Marques schrieb:

> The issue is, in normal
> speech, unstressed vowels either have to be reduced - our [@ e I o] -
> or stand outright, as exceptions - our [a E O]. Our usual u is
> neither, I think - both too long fit as reduced, and too close to draw
> enough air. Thence the allophone - closed but reduced. I don't know
> whether it qualifies as barred-u, being a possible counterpart to our
> I. This is why I was objecting to Ekkehard's hypothesis of u having an
> I allophone - I don't think it's an I. I don't think most speakers
> would ouright recognise such a form as beneco, even if read aloud;
> only maybe if it were rendered [bnEk], but *not* [bInEk(whatever)].

I agree, but I feel you're confusing phones with phonemes. Or perhaps you
think I am, which I wouldn't blame you for -- I'm finding it rather
difficult to make myself clear. By *"beneco", I really meant ['bnEk(u)], not
*[bi"'nEk(u)], and of course <beneco>. (By the way, do you remember "o snack
do caneco"? Whoever came up with that slogan must have thought it more or
less rhymed.)

As long as unstressed "e" and "o" (I have my reasons for not transcribing
them) can, but needn't, be realised identically, namely as zero, their
phonological status is unclear, isn't it, in that they can be considered
either separate phonemes or allophones of a single phoneme. I repeat: There
are probably better ways to explain this.

Regards,
Ekkehard


.

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