Lars:
> Thanks, I think I have got an idea-r-of what you
> mean.
A typical Canadian, being that we've kept our "r"'s
intact, would normally seperate neighbouring vowels
with a glottal stop instead. Personally, I don't
even bother with that. So for me, "go out" is
simply /gO aU?/ in normal speech.
> Similarly in hyper-urban French "quatre-z-heures".
Hyper-urban? Anyways, if you're saying "quatres
heures" as in "four hours (of duration)" then
sticking -z- there makes sense because "four" is
qualifying the noun "heure". Since French adjectives
agree with the noun they modify in number, the
-z- is pronounced as it is written before another
vowel.
If you're telling the time however, as in "4h le
matin" = "4-o'clock in the morning", that doesn't
sound right to me because here you're not saying
the equivalent of English "four hours". You're saying
"quatre heure" instead which is modern
shorthand for what is in effect "la quatrieme heure"
or "fourth hour" (<= note you're speaking about a
specific, SINGULAR moment in time, not many hours!).
Slight difference.
> By the way, does anybody have an idear of why there
> is a hiatus in "quatre-vingt-un". Wouldn't
> "quatre-vingt-z-un" have been the regular form?
Hmm, just found this link that may explain everything
on that:
http://wwwens.uqac.ca/dse/framee/pubz/guillaume/guil-chap2.html
"'Vingt' et 'cent' prennent un 's' quand ils sont
multipliés et qu'ils terminent l'adjectif
numéral."
Amusez-vous bien :) I should add that it would be
inappropriate to ever expect -z- for written "vingt"
because it ends in -t (direct from Latin vi:ginti:).
This is why "vingt-et-un" has the elided "t" of
"vingt" afterall.
The only circumstance where -z- would be appropriate
for this numeral is when we encounter plural "vingts"
where since it now ends in plural -s, /z/ is ripe for
linking to the following vowel.
= gLeN
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