The less educated a man is the more stress he lays on the accented syllables; and you find the lower classes of a country lay such emphasis on these syllables that they almost pronounce nothing else. Being unable to make myself understood when pronouncing whole English words, I have often tried to use only the accented syllables when speaking to the lower class people of England; in every attempt I have been successful.
I obtained a basket of strawberries in Covent Garden Market by asking for a "bask of strawbs."
A lower class Yankee will understand few Frenchmen who speak to him of America; but he will understand them if they speak to him of Merk.
The greatest defect in an Englishman's pronunciation of French is generally in the wrong connection of words between which there is no pause.
The final consonant of a word, followed by another beginning with a vowel or h mute, should be pronounced as if it belonged to the latter word. [ An ] Englishman sounds ses amis as if it was seize amis. He should say: "se samis."
"Mon ami est à Paris" = "Mo nami è ta Paris."
Perhaps the following remark on the separation of syllables may fix the rule:
The English say: mag-nan-im-ity.
The French say: ma-gna-ni-mi-té.