Re: why can't the BBC

On May 20, 9:51 am, Ruud Harmsen <realemailons...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Couldn't be Barrick, but the last vowel would be a shwa, if Bar is
stressed. That's not the same thing in BrE. (CF. Cher singing
"Memphus" instead in "Memphis": very strange and unlikely to my BrE
influenced ears.

Tue, 20 May 2008 08:35:19 -0700 (PDT): "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx>: in sci.lang:
I have no idea what you're talking about.

That's because you're American, so it's all allophonic to you. Native
speakers don't hear the diffrans.

Their "Barrick" has _exactly_ the same stress and vowel pattern as
their "garridge." The latter is a (weird) dialectal variant; the
former is utterly wrong.

That's exactly my point.

"Memphus" and "Memphis" would be pronounced identically.

That's exactly my point. Both have a shwa in the last syllable, but
when pronounced more carefully, as in the song, it turns into the
vowel of thus in AE, and more likely into the vowel of this in BrE.
(Native speakers of either will correct me if necessary).

So the problem is just the wrong stress. Should be on last syllable, I
think?

Of course it's the wrong stress.

Yes, and the stress also influences the vowels. Not always, but in
many cases. One them is this one.

(Not "just" the wrong stress. Stress
is phonemic in English.)

I know. You convinced me and I saw it confirmed in Gleason's book.

"Berark O'Barma"?

No, there is only one r in Barack, and the vowel in the first syllable
is [@], not [whatever the symbol for the vowel in <berth> is].

You misunderstand me. What I wrote is a (half serious) attempt to
explain the correct pronunciation for non-rhotics.

--
Ruud Harmsen

http://rudhar.com
.

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