I wrote:>The only explanation I can figure out - just like when I started
being able to trill my Rs by singing along with a Portuguese singer, instead
of just trying to... trill my Rs - is that there's something going in the
nervous system ( brain included ) that is being played a trick on.<
I meant: ... is that there's something going on in the nervous system
brain included ), which is being played a trick on.
Also, let me add another example of "absurd psychological interference":
Brazilian English students tend to say hOtel, instead of hotEl, although we
say hotEl in Portuguese. The only explanation linguists have devised is that
they're applying to that "new" "foreign" word the "natural tendency" in the
Portuguese stress system ( the second syllable backward is stressed ).
A simplistic analysis can't explain why people who always say hotEl start
saying hOtel when speaking another language. That explanation found seems to
be nonsensical: if they don't apply that rule when saying hotEl in
Portuguese, why have they "decided" to do it in English? Without it, there's
no explanation left. But how come, if they have the very same spelling, the
very same meaning, and the very same stress??!!
I could give you a dozen examples of "absurds" involving sound production,
but I think those two are enough to show that their physical description
doesn't tell the whole story.
Caio
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