# pulsus



## charlie2

Hi,
I put Latin in the title, but I am not sure.
Is "pulsus" Latin for "pulse"? If I am correct, roughly how do we pronounce it?
Thank you.


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## Outsider

Yes, and it's pronounced "pool-soos" (unvoiced final "s").


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## charlie2

Outsider said:


> Yes, and it's pronounced "pool-soos" (unvoiced final "s").


Thank you. One more question, if I may: Do we stress the first syllable "pool"?


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## Outsider

Yes, Latin disyllables are always stressed on their first syllable (though stress was probably more a question of tone than of intensity, in Classical Latin).


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:


> Yes, and it's pronounced "pool-soos" (unvoiced final "s").


 
Do you think this is accurate? The two U's are short. The plural would be "pul-soos" (u as in English p*u*t).


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## Outsider

Charlie asked:


charlie2 said:


> [...] roughly how do we pronounce it?


So I don't think we need to be too minute in the description.

Still, in my opinion it's best to aim for the quality of the vowels first, and then adjust the quantity, if you feel you really need to. The "u" in English "put" may have the same quantity as the "u" in Latin "pulsus", but it does not have the same quality (it's a bit more open and more centralized).


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## charlie2

Indeed a rough idea would be good enough for me. Thanks again.


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:


> Charlie asked:
> So I don't think we need to be too minute in the description.


 
I must have overlooked it, sorry. 



> Still, in my opinion it's best to aim for the quality of the vowels first, and then adjust the quantity, if you feel you really need to. The "u" in English "put" may have the same quantity as the "u" in Latin "pulsus", but it does not have the same quality (it's a bit more open and more centralized).


 
Yes, there's no sound like the Latin "u" in English.


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## Outsider

Whodunit said:


> Yes, there's no sound like the Latin "u" in English.


I would think the long "u" is close enough (in BE, at least)... The problem is the short "u", which has a different quality.

See here. By the way, it seems Cantonese has only a long "u", as well.


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