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From:  dorisopran@a...
dorisopran@a...
Date:  Tue Oct 17, 2000  3:58 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: opera and speech


In a message dated 10/17/00 10:38:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
caioross@z... writes:
caioross@z... writes:

<< English and German and European
Portuguese are stress-timed languages, so they are necessarily less
monotonous than Spanish, French, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese, which are
syllable-timed ones. >>

Caio, what is stress-timed and syllable-timed? Does it have something to do
with always stressing the penultimate syllable unless told to do otherwise by
means of an accent mark? I had no idea that was a difference between
European and Brazilian Portuguese! What about the highly, highly inflected
to the point of sing-song of the Northern Brazilians? The Cariocas sing
also. But I'd venture to guess that normal speech for a Brazilian covers a
way wider pitch range than any typical American's.

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