Re: Franco-Provençal

On 2009-02-20 06:02, Brian M. Scott wrote:

> At 10:00:26 PM on Thursday, February 19, 2009, tgpedersen
> wrote:
>
> > This one has puzzled me for years: where do you put the
> > stress in Vltava (and in general: do initial syllabic /l/
> > and /r/ carry stress)?
>
> The sound file at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vltava
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vltava>> has
> two speakers. The first puts roughly equal stress on the
> first two syllables, though the higher pitch of the second
> gives it more prominence to my ear; the second speaker puts
> primary stress on the first syllable.

The difference between stressed and unstressed in Czech may be a little
elusive to an Anglophone ear, as some of the cues important for the
perception of stress in English are bound to be missing (no vowel
reduction in unstressed syllables, length distinctions independent of
stress prominence). But yes, in general stress is supposed to be initial
in Czech, and syllabic consonants are fully stressable, and <Vltava> is
like <Brno>. There are also vowelless words like <krk> ans <vlk>, which
of course *have* to be stressed on the syllabic liquid.

Piotr