http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/english-stress-again Language in a word Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:04:18 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/english-stress-again/comment-page-1#comment-16710 Jack Windsor Lewis Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:24:59 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=510#comment-16710 I can remember looking up “trajectory” in my OED1 and being surprised that Murray — coming to the word in 1914 the year before he died with the OED still not completed after his thirty years work on it with three co-editors — recorded only /trə`ʤektəri/ for its spoken form. However, the editors of the 1989 OED2 did add /`trӕʤɪktəri/ which I can’t ever remember anyone using tho I feel it's natural-sounding enough to have been likely to be used by someone else besides Graham. I've felt tempted to myself. When Craigie in OED1 in 1905 had come to deal with “refectory” he’d added the note: “The stressing ˈrefectory was at one time somewhat prevalent ... and is still used by some Roman Catholics”. It’s hard to imagine anyone stressing the first syllable of “directory” tho not doing so for “dirigible” is so recent that none of the pronouncing dictionaries put such a later stressing first. I can remember looking up “trajectory” in my OED1 and being surprised that Murray — coming to the word in 1914 the year before he died with the OED still not completed after his thirty years work on it with three co-editors — recorded only /trə`ʤektəri/ for its spoken form. However, the editors of the 1989 OED2 did add /`trӕʤɪktəri/ which I can’t ever remember anyone using tho I feel it’s natural-sounding enough to have been likely to be used by someone else besides Graham. I’ve felt tempted to myself. When Craigie in OED1 in 1905 had come to deal with “refectory” he’d added the note: “The stressing ˈrefectory was at one time somewhat prevalent … and is still used by some Roman Catholics”. It’s hard to imagine anyone stressing the first syllable of “directory” tho not doing so for “dirigible” is so recent that none of the pronouncing dictionaries put such a later stressing first.

]]>