Accent Reduction – Get the Syllable Accent Stress Rules for French-Latin Suffixes      

I like finding the patterns in English pronunciation.  Based on academic learning and experience, I’ve learned that about everything has a pattern.

I’ve been looking for the pattern for syllable accent stress when suffixes are added to English words for quite some time.

Voila—reading John McWhorter, I found a good part of the answer.

Recall that for Germanic suffixes, the syllable accent stress stays in the same place as it was in the root word.

However, that is not the case with French and Latin suffixes.  Instead, the key is that French and Latin endings often pull the syllable accent stress closer to the suffix. In particular, the syllable accent stress moves to the syllable right before the suffixes which are French or Latin in origin.  These suffixes include –ity , –uous, -ic, -tion/sion/cian.

MO-dern

Mo-DER-ni-ty

PER-son-al

per-son-AL-ity

TEM-pest

Tem-PEST- uous

DI-plo-mat

di-plo-MA-tic

OR-gan

or-GAN-ic

CHAR-ac-ter

Char-ac-ter-IS-tic

PER-mit

per-MIS-sion

pro-HI-bit

pro-hi-BI-tion

POL-i-tics

Pol-i-TI-cian

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from May 4, 2016

Dressing for Presentations

If your office dress is business casual, be sure you err on the side of business versus casual.  This gives the impression that you are more serious and committed to your work.

Rerun from May 23, 2016

Accent Reduction – Finally- the Keys to Suffixes and Syllable Accent Stress (Germanic vs French-Latin suffix rules)

Have you ever wondered why when you add a suffix onto a root word, sometimes the syllable accent stress stays on the same syllable as the root word and sometimes it moves to the syllable next to the suffix ending?

For example:

• WON-der and WON-der-ful
• PER-son-al and per-son-AL-ity

The answer lies in which language the suffix comes from.  Recall that English is heavily built from Germanic, French, and Latin languages.

Put simply:

• The German language keeps the syllable accent stress on the same syllable as the original root word.

• But French and Latin endings often pull the syllable accent stress closer to the suffix.

Today’s blog will give examples with the Germanic suffixes –y,  –ly, –ful, -ness, less, 

Next week, we will do examples with French and Latin derived suffix endings.

Remember, for Germanic suffixes, keep the syllable accent stress on the same syllable as the original or root word.

CHEER.

CHEER-y

CHEER-i-ly

WON- der

WON-der- ful.

PUR-pose

PUR-pose-ful

CON-scious

CON-scious-ness

com-PET-i-tive

com-PET-i-tive-ness

POW-er

POW-er-less

PUR-pose

PUR-pose-less

BOTH-er

BOTH-er-some

CUM-ber

CUM-ber-some

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from April 27, 2016

Speak with Energy with Microphone

You must speak as forcefully with a mic as without one.  The energy of your voice gives color and meaning to your language.  The more robust the volume, the greater the intonation, inflection, and greater the shades of meaning you will be able to convey.

Rerun from May 16, 2016

Accent Reduction – The History & Backstory to English’s Wonderful Triplets and Doublets

Have you ever wondered why English has so many words that come from other languages?

Have you ever wondered why English has words – often two or three- for the same thing.  These triplets and doublets allow us to express ideas with different degrees of formality.  For example “help” is English root, “aid” comes from French, “assist” is Latin.

Here’s a brief back story for these important characteristics of English vocabulary:

Over centuries, English has been constructed with words from other lands and peoples.  It started out as essentially a kind of German.  Importantly, when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (and also Frisians) brought Germanic speech to English, the island was already inhabited by people who spoke Celtic languages – today represented by Welsh and Irish, and Breton across the Channel in France.

In the 9^th century invaders were speaking another Germanic offshoot, Old Norse.  Instead of imposing their language, they married local women and switched to English.  However, since they were adults, who don’t pick up new languages easily (no schools and no media, and an oral society), they spoke “bad” Old English.  Their children heard as much of the modified English as “Old English” and the language changed accordingly.

After the Norse came the French.  The Normans – descended from the Vikings—conquered England and ruled for several centuries.  That meant English picked up 10,000 new words.

Starting in the 16^th century, educated Anglophones (or people who speak English in a country with more than one language) began to develop English as a vehicle for complex and sophisticated writing.  At that time, it became popular to pick words from Latin to lend the language more prestige, to make it more high class, so to speak.

At this time English acquired such words as crucified, fundamental, definition, and conclusion.

And from this time, English had thousands of new words competing with native English words for the same things.  As mentioned in the beginning of this article, one result was triplets which allowed us to express ideas with different degrees of formality.  “Help” is English, “aid” is French, “assist” is Latin.

In like manner, “kingly” is English, “royal” is French, “regal” is Latin.

At the same time, doublets appeared.  “Begin” is English, “commence” is French.

“Want” is English, “desire” is French.

This double vocabulary is especially common for culinary/food vocabulary.

For example, we kill a “cow” or a “pig” (English).  From that we cook “beef” or “pork” (French).

Why?  The answer lies in the division of labor in Norman English.   That is, English-speaking laborers did the slaughtering or killing for the wealthier French speakers.

Thus, the different ways of referring to meat depended on one’s place in the society or broad community.   These distinctions come to us in the English vocabulary today.

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

 
Rerun from April 20, 2016