Syllabification

[probus]

I would pronounce the Scottish town of Montrose as mont rose, but I recently heard a resident of the place say it as mon TROSE. Two questions:

1. Am I being misled by the fact that mont and rose are words while mon and trose are not?

2. Is there a rule about where to separate these syllables?

 

[5jj]

In his Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, John Wells splits the word as Mon-trose.

The question of syllabification is controversial: different phoneticians have very different views about it. (LPD 2008.xxvii)

No completely satisfactory scheme of syllable division can be produced -all sets of rules will throw up some cases which cannot be dealt with properly. (EPD 2003.xiii)

 

[teechar]

Your ears were not wrong @probus. You heard it right.
Take a look at the following, especially the bit at the start about the Gaelic origin of the name.

Montrose, Angus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It has nothing to do with either mont or rose. Remember that many Scottish and Irish names got Anglicized as the language(s) of those people receded and English took over.

 

[jutfrank]

Are you asking which syllable the stress is placed on, @probus?

 

[probus]

No, I am asking whether the t belongs to the first or second syllable.

 

[PeterCW]

No, I am asking whether the t belongs to the first or second syllable.

In that particular instance I would put it in the second syllable but I speak SSE not Scottish English or Scots. British place names are a trap for anybody who isn't a local.