Non-native speaker here, in a continuous struggle to internalise the rule of where to put the stress in a multisyllabic English word. As I understand it (and dictionaries confirm this), the standard pronunciation of “hotel” has the stress on the second syllable. But where the word is used as an adjunct, e.g. in “hotel room”, the stress moves to the first syllable. This is at least my impression of common usage. Is this correct? Is there a name for this shift in word stress and a rule that governs when it applies?
I think that’s regional accents or ways of speaking.
For me personally (raised in the northeast US, currently living in the southeast US) it’s:
The ho-TEL
A ho-TEL room
with no change of inflection.
I have heard it the way you describe, (HO-tel room), and my sense without any true knowledge is that it’s a midwestern thing.
Yes. HO-tel sounds Southern, like INsurance.
Or TOMshure. Theres a southern man on the radio who promises to get me out of my tomshure.
When I saw the thread title, this is how I mentally pronounced it to myself. I’m having trouble thinking of anyone who pronounces it “HO-tel room”—maybe Roger Miller, in “King of the Road”?
(I’m in central Illinois.)
I have only heard ho-TEL-ROOM (or occasionally ho-TEL-ROOM, if the fact that it’s a room is emphasized). I do not think I’ve ever heard HO-tel-ROOM or HO-tel-room.
I say hoTEL room, but i feel like maybe I’ve heard HOtel room? It does sound Midwestern to me.
I agree with the general drift of the thread that “ho-TEL room” is probably the most common usage by the majority of native American English speakers, while “HO-tel room” gives the sense of a region-specific speaker (“whyntcha catch yusself a nap in ya HO-tel room”).
Digging way back into my text-analysis classes from decades ago, I think this phenomenon (where the emphasis moves around depending on usage) is called something like “initial stress derivation” or something similar.
HO-tel is definitely a southern thing.
The old Detroit Tigers announcer, George Kell (who was from Arkansas), used to talk about meeting Mr. Kaline down in the HO-tel lobby.
mmm
There is, however, a shift in word stress when a modifier+noun gets treated as a unit. For example, I’d pronounce “hot dog” with the stress on the first syllable if I were talking about a weenie on a bun, but with equal or greater stress on the second syllable if I meant a dog who was hot.
But I don’t remember the term for this, if there is one.
To me it’s always ho-TEL, and doesn’t change at all in “hotel room”.
I’m in Canada, which may be of some significance here because a number of major US news anchors came from Canada precisely because their accents were considered “neutral”, not identifiably British or US southern or Texan or Jersey or whatever.
I’ve never heard “HO-tel” but I have on occasion heard “IN-surance” which I do associate with the US south. Sounds totally bizarre to me.
Also “UM-brella.”
In English English, I think that both syllables are emphasised equally. Of course, in France the “H” is silent and the emphasis is on the “O”.
I’m from the Midwest (Indiana), and I would never say HO-tel room. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone pronounce it HO-tel room. It sounds weird.
“Meanwhile, back at the MO-tel…”
Another Canadian here. It’s always been “ho-TEL-room” for me. Though I tend to code switch with some place names for reaons I’m not suite sure of. I’m going to DE-troit this weekend, not De-TROIT.
I’m not sure where the impression that HO-tel is midwestern comes from. I wonder if I should start a thread asking you plural where you plural think the midwest actually is. Stressing the first syllable isn’t something you’d ever hear from a Michigander.
Heard it both ways at times. I don’t notice that much stress on either syllable most of the time. Don’t know of any rule for this but if someone asked “Which room?” I’d emphasize the first syllable in response, " The HO-tel room.".
Standard BrE pronunciation puts the stress on the second syllable in all contexts.
I understand that the HO-tel California is a lovely place, with plenty of room.