From: Etherman23
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 13:50:33 EST
--- In romanceconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Christian Thalmann
<cinga@g...>" <cinga@g...> wrote:
> --- In romanceconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Etherman23
<etherman23@y...>"
> <etherman23@y...> wrote:
>
> Make sure you completely forget the nonsensical custom of the
> English language to call its estranged diphthongised vowel
> phonemes "long".
Yes, English is quite evil.
> In Latin, what we mean by a long vowel *is* a long vowel --
> spoken for a markedly longer duration than a short one, but
> with the same quality.
So far so good.
> Under no circumstances should you allow anglicised
> pronunciations of Latin words tempt you to the Dark Side...
> The zodiac sign Gemini is pronounced "jemmy-nigh" in English,
> but the Latin |geminî| (long i at the end) is pronounced
> "ghemmy-nee"!
So let me get this straight. The first i is pronounced with short
quality and short quantity, and the second is with long quality and
long quantity? So the two always correlate?
> > However, it doesn't do it consistently.
>
> I doubt that... see below.
A quick example would be abdi(ca-ti(o
where i( is a short i and a- is a long a. Notice that the first a and
the o are not marked for length. So I look at my rules for
determining vowel length:
1) A vowel is short if
a) it's followed by another vowel or h
b) it's followed by nd or nt
2) A vowel is long if
a) it's derived from a diphthong
b) it's followed by ns, nf, or sometimes gn
c) it's formed from a contraction
3) A diphthong is long
Neither of the two unmarked vowels fall under these rules.
> > It also gives several rules for
> > determining quantity, but these don't cover all possible cases
and
> > quite frequently disagree with the diacritics.
>
> You're confusing stress with length. Those several rules
> determine on which syllable the stress falls. Both long and
> short vowels can carry the stress, and both can be unstressed.
> Again, this doesn't influence the vowel quality.
There's a separate set of rules for determining long and short
syllables. That part actually makes sense to me :)
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