Search results for 'tag:Vowels tag:Suffixes' matching tags 'Vowels' and 'Suffixes'

Re: How affix affect stress pattern?

CalifJim — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:08:50 GMT

Typical Greek suffixes.

Primary stress on the third syllable from the end.
(First vowel shown may vary.)

ocracy, opathy, otony, otany, otomy, ophony, ology, onomy, otrophy, ogamy, ography, ophany, osophy, ognomy, ogony, omaly, opoly, ogeny, ochrony, ochromy, olatry, omathy, ometry, onymy, oscopy, otropy, ometer, opolis, anthropy, abola

Also: -ysis, -esis, but NOT -osis.

Instead of the -y ending, these can have -ize (onomize, opolize), -ous (ogamous, omalous), -ist (onomist, ometrist), -ism (ologism), or -er (onomer, ographer).

Ex: democracy, monotony, lobotomy, theology, atrophy, geography, philosophy, anomaly, monopoly, synchrony, idolatry, trigonometry, barometer, metropolis, parabola, analysis, synthesis, monopolize, astronomer, photographer

Without the final -y, the stress moves back one syllable. But then it remains on the third syllable from the end.

Ex: democrat, monotone, catalog, photograph, synonym, telescope

Substituting the adjectival -ic for -y or -sis moves the primary stress to the second syllable from the end, and may cause other changes (in consonants).

Ex: democratic, geographic, philosophic, analytic, synthetic

Secondary stress on the second syllable from the end. The primary stress is earlier in the word.

doxy, plasty, archy, morphy, mony

Ex: orthodoxy, rhinoplasty, alimony

As above, without final -y, but here the primary stress is on the third syllable from the end. In effect, the change of removing -y does not shift the syllable that takes the primary stress.

Ex: orthodox, oligarch

Primary stress on the second syllable from the end.

osis

Ex: diagnosis, prognosis

With -ic stress is on the second syllable from the end.

Ex: diagnostic

CJ

Re: Usage of while/whilst, among/amongst and amid/amidst

Michael Hancock — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:24:04 GMT

I came across your string of messages just after writing to my former Turkish teacher on this subject. May I cut and paste?

While editing a legal handbook, I was confronted a few times with a "whilst" that didn't sound right to my ear. After a little reseach, I learned that the "-st" suffix in whilst, aidst and amongst is an "excrescent suffix"; according to my dictionary, excrescent means "of a sound in a word growing out of ['crescent' from the French 'croissant', growing (not to be confused with the breakfast roll, except indirectly though Marie Antoinette, the defeat of the Turkish army, the moon as a symbol of Islam and the moon in its "rising" (cresent) phase, but that's another story)] the action of the speech organs in forming neighboring sounds".

Now I had always thought that sound changes in suffixes were limited to Turkish, but here it is in English. The -st is added when the next word begins with a vowel, similar to "an orange" as opposed to "a pear" and the French liaison, where you pronounce the last letter of a word if the next word begins with a vowel, as in "pas encore", where there is a "z" sound between the two words, at least in my neighborhood.

So proper English usage calls for (or called for, perhaps some long time ago) whilst, aidst and amongst when the next work begins with a vowel. "Amongst us" but "among those present" ... it's just easier to pronounce.

As an American, I won't be using whilst any time soon, but I'll stop correcting my English colleagues who do, depending on the first letter of the next word, just to be pedantic.

Re: English is a crazy language

pemmican — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 22:12:56 GMT

>>I've never fully appreciated the noun gender rules. Is it a case of when you are young you have to study the gender of each noun (das haus = neutral noun) or are there patterns that you follow?

No, unfortunately there are no rules - at least not for the "simple" words.
There are some memory hooks for words ending in special suffixes (which also have exceptions though) eg.
- words ending in -ung, -ion, - are usually feminine
die Achtung (caution), die Warnung (warning), die Nation (nation), die Konstruktion (construction)
- words ending in -chen, -nis are usually neuter
das BrÃ¶tchen (bread roll), das Ereignis (happening)/ exception: die Finsternis (darkness)
etc.
but you can never take them for granted! You have to learn most of the nouns' genders by heart... sorry.

>>Question Pemmican!
>Is there a rule in German when it comes to a double 's' a different symbol is used? I've been told that this 'symbol' is optional and up to the user? (The symbol looks something like an overstretched letter B!)

Are you learning German?!

Yes, here there are rules - those depend on what spelling you're learning or have learned:

If you're going to follow the New spelling rules from 1996, then it is quite easy to explain:
Is this -sound following a long pronounced vowel or a diphthong, then you write it as "Ã", in all the other cases you use "ss":

-der FuÃ (foot), grÃ¼Ãen (to greet), die StraÃe (street), groÃ (big, tall, large), der SpaÃ (fun)...
-der Kuss (kiss), das KÃ¼sschen (little kiss), mÃ¼ssen (to have to), ich muss (I must), ich habe gemusst (I've had to), das Wasser (water)...

If you're going to follow the old spelling rules (mainly from 1901), then it's a bit more complex:
A word can only end in -s or -Ã, not in -ss.
Is the -sound within the word following a long pronounced vowel or a diphthong, then you write "Ã", is it followed by a short pronounced vowel, then you spell it "ss", except the s-sound is the last sound of the word, the last sound of the stem part of the word or is (mainly in inflections) immediately followed by a t:

-FuÃ, grÃ¼Ãen, StraÃe, groÃ, SpaÃ...
-KuÃ, KÃ¼Ãchen, mÃ¼ssen, ich muÃ, ich habe gemuÃt, Wasser...

In Switzerland, however, you actually always spell it "ss". "Ã" hardly occurs.

Even if you're using the new spelling, you should keep the old rules in mind, too. You don't have to use them but most of the Germans dislike the new spelling rules as they are very confusing and go on writing with old spelling rules. Even lots of newspapers, after discovering their readers don't want to accept the new rules, changed back to old spelling.

Soon after the New rules (which btw don't just affect "Ã" and "ss", but also a lot of other grammatical and spelling stuff) came out, lots of people were disappointed by the chaos the linguists produced by their changings and now just avoid the new spelling.

"Ã" is called either "sharp s", because it is always pronounced as the strong -sound, never like , or also (this one is more popular) "Eszet" - which occupy the origin of the actual letter "Ã": It has been formed by putting together the ancient German handwriting "s" and "z".

Here you can have a look at the old handwriting:

The ancient "long s" (2nd letter in 3rd line) and the ancient "z" (2nd letter in 4th line) form the letter "Ã" (4th letter in 3rd line).

Hope I could help you out.
Greetings from Germany
Pemmican