English is a stress-timed language

 

"So this is why stress is so important in American English.  It's a stress-timed language.  When you give us nice shape in your stressed syllables, you're giving us the meaning of the sentence.  This means that other syllables need to be unstressed --- flatter, quicker --- so that the stressed syllables are what the ear goes to. 

...

A lot of people think, when they're studying a language and they're new to it, that they need to pronounce each word fully and clearly in order to be well-understood.  But in English that's actually not the case.  English is a stress-timed language.  That means some syllables will be longer, and some will be shorter."

 

반면

 

"Many languages, however, are syllable-timed, which means each syllable has the same length.  Examples of syllable-timed languages:  French, Spanish, Cantonese.  So, when an American hears a sentence of- English, with each syllable having the same length, it takes just a little bit longer to get the meaning.  This is because we are used to stressed syllables, syllables that will pop out of the line because they're longer and they have more shape.  Our ears, our brains, go straight to those words.  Those are the content words.  When all syllables are the same length, then there's no way for the ear to know which words are the most important."

 

 

한 줄 요약 : (응원이나 마법의 주문 암송 등 챈트 할 때를 제외하면)

 

영어는 음절 길이가 한국어나 그밖의 여러 외국어같이 일정한 길이가 아니고 

 

강세에 따라 길이가 늘었다 줄었다 역동적으로 변한다.

 


출처 : 레이철 잉글리시

http://www.rachelsenglish.com/videos/english-stress-timed-language