Re: OT: Syllabic Stress in English

["R. Brzustowicz" <brz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, Dan Moonhawk Alford wrote:

> Good summary, Dennis. One missed is Noun-Noun compounds, such as "políce
> dog" vs. an Adjective-Noun such as "iron gate." Note the low stress on "dog"
> vs. the high stress on "gate." This is a particularly interesting
> suprasegmental contrast because it's so unconscious with English speakers
> and hard to bring up to consciousness.
> 
> warm regards, moonhawk

And in fact if "Iron Gate" were the name of a scandal (cf
Watergate> File Gate, Nanny Gate, etc) the pronunciation would shift
to the former model. 

I have the impression that there are dialects of American English in
which this distinction is not conserved, or handled differently -- I
seem to remember people from New York City doing so, but I can't
think of any examples off-hand.

Richard B