Re: Counting syllables in 'fire' and other words

Quoth Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx>, and I quote:

On Jun 27, 5:34 pm, "Ildhund" <jn...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
R H Draney wrote...
Maria Conlon filted:
John Kane wrote, in part:
It is fairly easy to give 'fire' a two syllable pronunication.
Of course Americans from the Deep South may be able to get 3 or
4 syllables out of it.
Huh. Try one: far.
Pronounced like "a long, long way to run"....r

There is some sort of telepathic force at work tonight. I have just
come in from nursing a nightcap beneath the stars, where I find r's
post waiting to be read. I had been musing over the 'puns in
languages other than English and French' thread, when some Bach
wafted across from an open window somewhere. This set me thinking
about musical 'puns', for want of a better term, like Liszt's
variations on B-A-C-H (which presumes that you call the white note
below C H and the black one below that B, Germanic style).
...

You know Bach himself used that motif, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-A-C-H_motif

Scroll down to the bottom for "Other signature motifs".

So here are three examples - Doh, a deer..., B A C H and D Es B. Any
more?

If you're willing to take "Doe, a deer", there's a children's riddle:

Why is slippery ice like music?

If you don't C-sharp, you'll B-flat!

You might also be interested in groaning at this:

http://boredstiffgeeks.blogspot.com/2009/03/if-you-dont-c-sharp-youll-b-flat.html

[1] and the usage justification: we have dozens of words like road,
way, track, street... for bits of ground to move on, but I can't
think of one cognate with g. "bahn", Scandinavian "bane|bana". Are
there any?

There's German "Gasse", meaning "street", apparently. I can't think
of any in English. (Assuming that by "cognate" you mean a word with
that kind of meaning. I think "cognate" more properly means a word
that descends from the same origin, such as "frail" and "fragile", or
"color" and "couleur".)

German "Gasse" has a cognate in English "gate", not the barrier
but the Scandinavian word found in street names like Kirkgate,
for example in York.

--
James
.

Relevant Pages

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