John, Your reply indicates to me that all this confusion relates to each person's interpretation of the phonetic pronunciation of what they remember what their parents may have said when they were a child. I remember the following:
Avô/grandfather, (pronounced Ah-vooh) for which the dimiutive is pronouced vuh-vooh (vavô really threw me. I would pronounce that Vaaaah-Vooh) Avó/grandmother, (pronounced Ah-vaw), for which the diminutive is pronounced Vaw-vaw although I could easily go along with vuh-vaw. In all cases the accent would be on the last sylable. So, I think it boils down to what we remembered from childhood as well as slight local differences in pronunciations as well as how each person interprets phonetics. We can probably lay this subject to rest. John Vasconcelos -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Avô/grandfather, (pronounced Uh-vooh, as in boo!) for which the diminutive is vavô (pronounced vuh-voo) and sometimes avôzinho on the mainland. Avó/grandmother, (pronounced Ah-vaw), for which the diminutive is vavó (pronounced vuh-vaw) and sometimes avózinha on the mainland. The exact pronunciations and intonations vary from island to island but there are no different "dialects" spoken on the islands, anymore than there is in the US. Somebody like me, born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, speaks the same English as is spoken in Macon, Georgia (with some minor regional peculiarities, e.g., reckon vs. figure), but it takes some getting used to for me to follow a conversation between rural Georgians who no doubt need to adjust their ears to follow the conversation between rural Yankees. But both Yankees and southerners speak standard American English, albeit with very different accents and some regionalisms. The same is true between Azoreans from different islands and even more so between the islanders and the mainlanders. John --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
