Are all these facts facts?

[Dactyl]

I can't be arsed to look them all up in a dictionary so we'll go with dictionary.com as it's quicker. As before, the stressed syllable is in bold.

aloe (al-oh)
bygone (bahy-gawn)
cockpit (kok-pit)
dactyl (dak-til])
…
tutu (too-too)
undone (uhn-duhn)
wakeboard - not listed
xylem (zahy-luhm)
zero (zeer-oh)

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

aloe (al-oh)
dactyl (dak-til])
tutu (too-too)
xylem (zahy-luhm)
zero (zeer-oh)

possibly single stressed, but possible double stressed:
www.m-w.com:
Pronunciation: 'a-(")lO
Pronunciation: 'dak-t^&l, -"til
Pronunciation: 'tü-(")tü
Pronunciation: 'zI-l&m, -"lem
Pronunciation: 'zE-(")rO, 'zir-(")O

bygone (bahy-gawn)
cockpit (kok-pit)
undone (uhn-duhn)
wakeboard - not listed

These ones are always double stressed in amercian/canadian accent:

Pronunciation: 'bI-"gon
Pronunciation: 'käk-"pit
Pronunciation: "&n-'dü, '&n-
Pronunciation: 'bI-"gon

Probably more than coincidence that 3 of these are compound words.

Certain dictionaries only mark the (most) emphasized syllable, but that doesn't mean the other syllables are unstressed.

For many of these, i couldn't imagine them being pronounced double stressed in a british accent.

[Dactyl]

The greater stress (indicated by the single quote (') before the syllable) is still the same way round on all those words as I indicated in my post.

Maybe stressed was the wrong word in my defintion. A quick google gives the American Heritage Dictionary definition as follows:

Rhyme in which the final accented vowel and all succeeding consonants or syllables are identical, while the preceding consonants are different

"Accented vowel" is probably a better term as it disguishes the strongest stressed vowel from the less stressed vowels.

Unless you say "or-'inj with the accented vowel/greatest stress on the last syllable you can't have fringe.

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

Heritage Dictionary "Accent"
1. The relative prominence of a particular syllable of a word by greater intensity or by variation or modulation of pitch or tone.

Now there's a very obvious difference between an unstressed vowel and stressed one, i'd have to argue that the difference its much more noticeable than between first and second stressed:

The difference between the 2 stressed syllable will not cause comprehension problems if the stresses are reversed in the word, but reversal of stressed and unstressed syllable would cause difficulty.

I.E. you could pronounce it ''by'gone and still be understood, but by'gone would sound like "begone"

A practical difference/definition, should trump an arbitrary one.

So relative prominence, is more likely to mean compared to the "melt-away" unstressed sounds.

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Originally Posted by Dactyl

In that case orange does indeed have no rhyme in the English language.

Cutthroat Bill suggests "door hinge."

The Declaration of Independance was written on parchment. I watched a show about it today. But dogs CAN look up.

Wesman

66. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

I thought I made this up!

Seriously, it's been 25 years since I started calling butterflies "flutterbies", and I thought I was the only peron in the whole wide world would had thought of the "clever" play on words.

[ButterscotchCat]

the rhyme for orange is doorhinge

[inkrose115]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

This is true. Abe Lincoln's son, you see, was being attacked by a pit bull named Temper when Booth's brother came along with his dog Tyrannus. Temper was, shall we say, aptly named, although it is alleged by history that young Abe Jr. had pulled on its ears a little. In any case, Booth's brother yelled "Sic Temper, Tyrannus!" and pulled young Abe Jr. away while the dogs ripped each other to death.

Four years later, young Abe Jr. was dead of that one disease you get when you grow old ahead of your time. I forget its name. Most historians believe this was not a coincidence. By the time of his death, his eyes were almost completely red.

All of your replies got at least a chuckle out of me, but that one had me in stiches.

[Ramblin' Dave]

Originally Posted by Elwood

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. (No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.)

Plausible, but how do you prove it?

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

I'm pretty sure this is true, but it's not that impressive. Does anyone know offhand if the proportion of words in English with one syllable is greater than 1 in 50?

The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.

I wonder is it known with any certainty what she looked like? Seeing as the flag story is bogus, I'm not sure she was famous enough in her own lifetime to warrant a portrait.

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

This one almost certainly is true, as long as a stadium full of people meets your definition of "city". But, like the Maine one, it's not as impressive as it sounds. Most of Nebraska is extremely sparsely populated.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life"

Nope, Jim Henson always said it was a coincidence.

[Tantei Kid]

About Betsy Ross

Originally Posted by Ramblin' Dave

I wonder is it known with any certainty what she looked like? Seeing as the flag story is bogus, I'm not sure she was famous enough in her own lifetime to warrant a portrait.

While the Betsy Ross House maintains she did make the flag (not much of a draw if you admit it's false), even they don't have any pictures of her beyond recreations of her showing off her flag. So I'd imagine there aren't any surviving portraits if one was even ever made.

[Ceiling Fan]

106. Finnish folklore says that when Santa comes to Finland to deliver gifts, he leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko instead.

Originally Posted by Sister Ray

I know the goat in Finland's Santa is not true. My aunt married a Finnish man, and he gave me and my sister an English translation of a popular book there on Santa. There were many differences - he lives in Lapland and not the North Pole, his reindeer roam wild most of the year - but there were no goats in it.

Oh, Sister Ray, you beat me to it! Yep, you've got it right, no goats in here! The word ukko means "an old man", and it is also a first name.

In Finland the Santa delivers the gifts on Christmas Eve. He comes in, making a noise before entering the house to build up the kids' excitement, delivers the gifts and leaves. Children usually sing a song or two for him. And he usually arrives in a car, rather than with reindeer...

Originally Posted by sandycheeks

106. Finnish folklore says that when Santa comes to Finland to deliver gifts, he leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko instead.

I have something more to say about this one. Santa Claus is called "Joulupukki" in Finnish (joulu = christmas, pukki = goat). The reason for this is that before this Santa Claus thing became popular in Finland, we had an own winter tradition about AD 1500-1900. A "Nuuttipukki", a man who was actually dressed as a goat, visited homes on January 13th to drink and eat whatever there were left from Christmas foods and beer. Ukko was the god of thunder in pre-Christian Finnish mythology, and he had nothing to do with Santa Claus or Nuuttipukki.

[Don Enrico]

97. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words "North" and "South).

In English, that is.

In German, Asia is "Asien", Europe is "Europa", Australia is "Australien", and Antarctica is the "Antarctis". Only "Amerika" starts and ends with the same letter (not counting "Süd" and "Nord", of course).

Don "mumble mumble Anglo-Centrists mumble mumble" Enrico

[Don Enrico]

122. Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations (implemented on July 16, 1969) makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles.

Not really.

Don Enrico

[Don Enrico]

174. A "jiffy" is the scientific name for 1/100th of a second.

Apparently, there are several scientific meanings of "jiffy" - non of them is 1/100th of a second.

Don Enrico

215. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. (the heart is not a muscle)

no no no no! the tongue is the strongest muscle for its size, but not the strongest muscle in your body! And the heart is definitely a muscle which is also called ''cardiac muscle''

[gopher]

Originally Posted by Dactyl

I pronounce Orange with an I sound and double stressing it just sounds weird. Is there any disyllablic word with a double stress? Try saying it. Now trying saying it in a sentence. It just sounds like someone had trod on your foot halfway through. In fact, I can't think of a single English word that stresses consecutive syllables (however, I'm willing to be corrected).

I will agree with you point that the perfect rhyme debate in English is murky due to regional accents and pronounciations, however, in respect to the FACT as stated in the list it's not completley off base. If we go with the pronounciation key from this dictionary in front of me (which is admittedly British English) we get or-inj where the bold indicates the stress. In that case orange does indeed have no rhyme in the English language.

If we allow proper nouns then Blorenge rhymes with orange

http://freespace.virgin.net/paul.ben...r/blorenge.htm

Originally Posted by Don Enrico

In German, Asia is "Asien", Europe is "Europa", Australia is "Australien", and Antarctica is the "Antarctis". Only "Amerika" starts and ends with the same letter (not counting "Süd" and "Nord", of course).

You forgot Afrika.

[Don Enrico]

Originally Posted by Jubel

You forgot Afrika.

You are right. "Amerika" and "Afrika" start and end with the same letter in German.

Don Enrico