Example: I noticed yesterday that in 'reheat' it is pronounced /i/ but in 'recollect' it is pronounced more like /ɛ/.
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1"reheat" means "heat again", but "recollect" doesn't mean "collect again" (ordinarily, but it it does, "re-" is pronounced [ri]).– Greg LeeCommented May 13, 2018 at 15:44
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1does recollect not have a sense of again in it like the word remember?– Andrew JamesCommented May 13, 2018 at 17:05
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1Yes. As the ordinary sense of "recollect" does not mean collect again, so "remember" does not mean member again.– Greg LeeCommented May 13, 2018 at 19:22
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1And the specific meaning correlating to (after re-) again isn't what I'm asking for. I'm on about the specific use of re- as the morpheme with the meaning again– Andrew JamesCommented May 13, 2018 at 19:26
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Both "recollect" and "remember" contain the Latin prefix re "again".– fdbCommented May 14, 2018 at 11:37
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1 Answer
Short answer, no - vowel harmony is a property of a language, not a subset of words. Even so, there are many counter-examples to show this doesn't occur with re- words:
- require, research, resource, rely, relay, retrace, return, review... etc
For words with a prefix 're-', the pronunciation falls into ~three categories with mostly predictable pronunciation of the first syllable. Your examples coincidentally happen to have the same vowel in their other syllables:
/ri/
re + verb = redoing verb
stress on second syllable
- rebuff (v.) /riːˈbʌf/
- recapture (v.) /riːˈkæptjʊɚ/ -redress (v.²) /riːˈdrɛs/
- remake (v.) /riːˈmeɪk/
- reunion (n.) /riːˈjuːnɪən/
- revisit (v.) /riːˈvɪzɪt/
/ri/
stress on first syllable
- remake (n.) /ˈriːmeɪk/
/rɪ/
re + verb = different from just redoing verb
stress on second syllable
- rebuff (v.) /rɪˈbʌf/
- redact (v.) /rɪˈdækt/
- redress (v.¹) /rɪˈdrɛs/
- refect (v.) /rɪˈfɛkt/
- resolve (n.) /rɪˈzɒlv/
- resounding (ppl. a.) /rɪˈzaʊndɪŋ/
- retrieval (v.) /rɪˈtriːvəl/
/rɛ/
re + non-extant verb
stress on third syllable
- resurrect (v.) /rɛzəˈrɛkt/
- revolutionize (v.) /rɛvəˈl(j)uːʃənaɪz/
Excluding French etc loanwords with non-nativised pronunciation (e.g. recherché, relevé etc).
See here for more info:
