an English drawbridge over the moat

credit: www.squidoo.com

Writing about Oxford Street and Oxford Road instigated my brain to think about the ever so many names the English language provides for road names. Let's see how many I can dig up within 5 minutes time:

alley, approach, arcade, avenue,
bank, boulevard, brow, buildings,
causeway, chase, circus, close, corner, cottages, court, crescent, croft,
drive,
embankment, end, esplanade,
fields
gardens, garth, gate, green, grove,
heights, hill,
lane, lawn, link,
mead, mews, mount,
parade, park, passage, pavement, place, promenade,
quay,
rise, road, row,
side, square, street,
terrace,
vale, view, villas,
walk, wall, way,
yard, ...

As said - there must be a lot more.

Next question: Why do the English need so many of them?

credit: www.basicfamouspeople.com

George Mikes (Hungarian-born, pronounced /ˈmɪkeʃ/) wrote in How to be an Alien: "You must understand that an English town is a vast conspiracy to mislead foreigners". It could well have been a Tschörman writing this because the latter likes and values 'order'. Tschörman houses hef house numbers, and neither ze street names nor ze house numbers are camouflaged as they are in England. A camouflage par excellence consists in giving a house an individual name such as Park Cottage, Midford Castle, Meadow View, Squirrels Leap, Cricket House, Evesham Manor,South Pavilion, Old Friars, Moushill Manor, etc. - but don't forget to check with the local authorities and the Royal Mail Address Maintenance Unit if you plan to individualise your house.

credit: BBC

Giving streets and houses fancy names and concealing house numbers is the modern substitute for moats and drawbridges, isn't it?

homing in on slashes

In a reply to my blog entry of the 19th of January Jack Windsor Lewis points to Bloch & Trager's Outline of Linguistic Analysis of 1942, where on page 47 they mention the term 'diagonals' (i.e. forward slashes), which they use to enclose phonemes. ɥere is the oriɡinal quotation from their book:

One year earlier, in 1941, Trager & Bloch published an article in Language (vol. 17, p. 229) with the title "The syllabic phonemes of English". Here's the screenshot of the footnote in which they use the term 'diagonals'

Can anyone come up with an antedating?

a lunch box on Times Square

A writer of pronunciation textbooks recently asked for help with a "simple rule" that explains the different stress patterns in Times 'Square or New 'York and 'lunch box or 'drugstore.

There is no simple rule, I'm afraid. Let's look at the General British English canonical pronunciation of some compounds combinations and concentrate on noun+noun compounds combinations first (stress patterns are based on checked against LPD3, if listed there; I do not indicate secondary stress).

'lunch box, 'lawn mower, 'book-case, 'lawn party, 'garden party, a'larm bell, 'smoke alarm, 'shoebox, 'coat hanger, 'mountain bike, 'Oxford Street, etc. There are a lot of noun compounds with primary stress on the first constituent. This looks promising, but alas ...

... despite 'Oxford Street it's Oxford 'Road, Oxford 'Circus, Oxford 'Court, Oxford 'Drive, Oxford 'Gardens, Oxford 'Lane, Oxford 'Avenue, x 'Mews, x 'Close, x 'Square, x 'Station, etc., and we can add other place names such as Epping 'Forest, Wandsworth 'Plain, Ladram 'Bay, Cumbria 'Fells, Derbyshire 'Dales, Maze 'Hill, Leckwith 'Moors, Buckingham 'Palace, Albert 'Hall, Westminster 'Abbey, Stone'henge, Hyde 'Park, St. Paul's Ca'thedral. Widening our geographical perspective we note Niagara 'Falls, North 'Sea, Atacama 'Desert, Eagle 'Plains, Yukon 'Territory, etc.

Needless to say noun-noun combinations are not restricted to geographical names. And it's here where it's getting really complicated!
olive 'oil or 'olive oil but 'olive branch yet olive 'drab,
peanut 'butter, butter 'icing but 'butter bean,
'milk tooth but milk 'shake, milk 'chocolate, milk 'pudding,
'coach station, 'coach driver, 
neighbourhood 'watch, but 'watchmaker, 'watchcase, 'watchdog,
'soap dispenser, 'soap opera, 'soapbox,
back'bencher but 'backbreaker, 'backbone,
government 'crisis,
crown 'colony, crown 'court, crown 'jewels,
pound 'note, pound 'sterling, but 'pound cake,
apple 'pie, apple 'green, apple 'sauce but 'applecart, 'apple blossom, 'apple tree,
head 'start, head 'waiter, head'quarter (or 'headquarter) but 'headroom, 'headset, 'headlight, 'headline.

On the 24th of December 2010 I wrote (the text is completely looney):
Before Christmas 'holidays start I do my Christmas 'shopping: I get some 'Christmas cards and buy some 'Christmas presents: On Christmas 'Eve I put them into Christmas 'stockings, so my beloved ones will find them on Christmas 'Day before we all have Christmas 'dinner, which includes some Christmas 'pudding. We might watch or listen to the Queen’s Christmas 'speech and sing some Christmas 'carols round the 'Christmas tree. Later we eat 'Christmas cake or might pull Christmas 'crackers. I no longer give out 'Christmas boxes. On the whole 'Christmas time means a lot of stress.


Have I whetted your appetite?

credit: www.mario-schaefer.com

More to come in a future blog entry. Bon appétit!



P.S.: See also Jack Windsor Lewis's remarks on stress irregularities.

transitionally updated

Taking up Jack Windsor Lewis's suggestion I've added the allopolyphons with epenthetic /t/ and /d/ respectively:

1.	trӕnˈzɪʃənəli		trӕndˈzɪʃənəli
2.	trӕnˈzɪʃn̩əli		trӕndˈzɪʃn̩əli
3.	trӕnˈzɪʃnəli		trӕndˈzɪʃnəli
4.	trӕnˈzɪʃnli		trӕndˈzɪʃnli
5.	trӕnˈzɪʃn̩l̩i		trӕndˈzɪʃn̩l̩i
6.	trӕnˈsɪʃənəli		trӕntˈsɪʃənəli
7.	trӕnˈsɪʃn̩l̩i		trӕntˈsɪʃn̩l̩i
8.	trӕnˈsɪʃn̩əli		trӕntˈsɪʃn̩əli
9.	trӕnˈsɪʃnəli		trӕntˈsɪʃnəli
10.	trӕnˈsɪʃnli		trӕntˈsɪʃnli
11.	trӕnˈsɪʒənəli		trӕntˈsɪʒənəli
12.	trӕnˈsɪʒn̩l̩i		trӕntˈsɪʒn̩l̩i
13.	trӕnˈsɪʒn̩əli		trӕntˈsɪʒn̩əli
14.	trӕnˈsɪʒnəli		trӕntˈsɪʒnəli
15.	trӕnˈsɪʒnli		trӕntˈsɪʒnli
16.	trɑːnˈzɪʃənəli		trɑːndˈzɪʃənəli
17.	trɑːnˈzɪʃn̩l̩i		trɑːndˈzɪʃn̩l̩i
18.	trɑːnˈzɪʃn̩əli		trɑːndˈzɪʃn̩əli
19.	trɑːnˈzɪʃnəli		trɑːndˈzɪʃnəli
20.	trɑːnˈzɪʃnli		trɑːndˈzɪʃnli
21.	trɑːnˈsɪʃənəli		trɑːntˈsɪʃənəli
22.	trɑːnˈsɪʃn̩əli		trɑːntˈsɪʃn̩əli
23.	trɑːnˈsɪʃnəli		trɑːntˈsɪʃnəli
24.	trɑːnˈsɪʃnli		trɑːntˈsɪʃnli
25.	trɑːnˈsɪʃn̩l̩i		trɑːntˈsɪʃn̩l̩i
26.	trɑːnˈsɪʒənəli		trɑːntˈsɪʒənəli
27.	trɑːnˈsɪʒn̩l̩i		trɑːntˈsɪʒn̩l̩i
28.	trɑːnˈsɪʒn̩əli		trɑːntˈsɪʒn̩əli
29.	trɑːnˈsɪʒnəli		trɑːntˈsɪʒnəli
30.	trɑːnˈsɪʒnli		trɑːntˈsɪʒnli
31.	trənˈzɪʃənəli		trəndˈzɪʃənəli
32.	trənˈzɪʃn̩l̩i		trəndˈzɪʃn̩l̩i
33.	trənˈzɪʃn̩əli		trəndˈzɪʃn̩əli
34.	trənˈzɪʃnəli		trəndˈzɪʃnəli
35.	trənˈzɪʃnli		trəndˈzɪʃnli
36.	trənˈsɪʃənəli		trəntˈsɪʃənəli
37.	trənˈsɪʃn̩əli		trəntˈsɪʃn̩əli
38.	trənˈsɪʃnəli		trəntˈsɪʃnəli
39.	trənˈsɪʃnli		trəntˈsɪʃnli
40.	trənˈsɪʃn̩l̩i		trəntˈsɪʃn̩l̩i
41.	trənˈsɪʒənəli		trəntˈsɪʒənəli
42.	trənˈsɪʒn̩l̩i		trəntˈsɪʒn̩l̩i
43.	trənˈsɪʒn̩əli		trəntˈsɪʒn̩əli
44.	trənˈsɪʒnəli		trəntˈsɪʒnəli
45.	trənˈsɪʒnli		trəntˈsɪʒnli
46.	trnˈzɪʃənəli		trndˈzɪʃənəli
47.	trnˈzɪʃn̩l̩i		trndˈzɪʃn̩l̩i
48.	trnˈzɪʃn̩əli		trndˈzɪʃn̩əli
49.	trnˈzɪʃnəli		trndˈzɪʃnəli
50.	trnˈzɪʃnli		trndˈzɪʃnli
51.	trnˈsɪʃənəli		trntˈsɪʃənəli
52.	trnˈsɪʃn̩l̩i		trntˈsɪʃn̩l̩i
53.	trnˈsɪʃn̩əli		trntˈsɪʃn̩əli
54.	trnˈsɪʃnəli		trntˈsɪʃnəli
55.	trnˈsɪʃnli		trntˈsɪʃnli
56.	trnˈsɪʒənəli		trntˈsɪʒənəli
57.	trnˈsɪʒn̩l̩i		trntˈsɪʒn̩l̩i
58.	trnˈsɪʒn̩əli		trntˈsɪʒn̩əli
59.	trnˈsɪʒnəli		trntˈsɪʒnəli
60.	trnˈsɪʒnli		trntˈsɪʒnli

We now have 120 allopolyphons with final /i/. Adding another 120 versions with /ɪ/ gives a total of 240 (within the confines of the variants listed in LPD3 and EPD18).