Re: Szetc

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:36:05 +0000: António Marques <m.ap@xxxxxxx>: in
sci.lang:

>For _enigmatico_ you're in trouble because the e- usually has to be [e]
>or [i]. You can get it to [I], but then it's hard to drop the [I]
>itself, unlike what's usual. Of course you can do all these things, but
>then you risk a break in communication.

There are lots of such breaks when I try to understand spoken
Portuguese. (;-)
Now that I'm getting better, I often still have that "huh??" feeling
at the end of a phrase, and then I sort of see the whole thing rolled
back in a mental movie, re-assembled into full forms, and I realise
what it must have been that led to what I actually heard. If the pause
is long enough for this mental process to evolve, I can understand the
meaning, but if the next full speed sentence has already started, I
often "derail", which means switching from understanding nearly
everything to nothing at all.There is nothing in between. It's either
95% or 0%. Formerly, I was more often at zero, now I am at 95% for
longer periods. But only if the speaker adheres to a standard Lisbon
or Coimbra accent. The slighest regional accent can put me off the
track already.

>Some contractions are more usual than others, and the most extreme cases
>are seldom found.

All the time, in my experience. Especially in heated TV debates
between a politician and a tv reporter who tries to make them say the
wrong things.

--
Ruud Harmsen - http://rudhar.com

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