[New-Poetry] Questions on form

[jfq at myuw.net]

So since we've started having this conversation I've been sort of compulsively repeating the word "different" to myself in different contexts and have come to the conclusion that I have three wholely different pronunciations of it. When I subvocalize, speak in a more formal register, or use it as a direct object of the copula, I say "different" with the very de-emphasized schwa.

If I'm talking in my normal casual register I say "diffrent" with no third syllable.

If I'm talking really fast I say "Diffrn'" with a glottal stop in place of the aspirated "t" following the n, which sounds almost sounds like the southern "differnt."

But since this is the formal register of poetry and it's subvocalized, in this case I see it as "different".

But in any case, this is all drifting from my point which is I don't think syllable counts matter all that much in English verse, and that's the reason that we can all perceive the rhythm in the lines in question even though we all evidently pronounce certain words differently enough to make our syllable counts different. Which I think works because the reason is because all the extra syllables are unstressed and so don't change the overall number of primary and secondary stresses in a line, which is all that is needed to establish a meter.



On Tue, 1 Jan 2008, Chris Lott wrote:

> I understand where the 4th syllables are supposed to be, I just don't
> ever hear anyone actually verbalizing them. In my head they sound
> different, particularly when spelled to reflect the missing syllable
> (different vs diffrent) but in reality I and everyone else I can think
> of (I'lll have to pay more attention) actually *say* it as "diffrent"
> ...
>
> I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska...
>
> c
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