Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 10:35:21 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, "Pedro F. Giffuni" <pfgiffun@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Regulated names (was: Crazy Laws) Message-ID: <19981228103521.Q12346@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19981228104750.15675@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Mon, Dec 28, 1998 at 10:47:50AM %2B1100 References: <xzpg1a3mzhe.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <19981226131644.I12346@freebie.lemis.com> <4.1.19981226104824.05822710@mail.lariat.org> <36854A89.B393D402@uk.radan.com> <19981227112355.B12346@freebie.lemis.com> <4.1.19981227111018.057c04c0@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19981227112512.059b06e0@mail.lariat.org> <3686A237.E0701780@uk.radan.com> <19981228100751.P12346@freebie.lemis.com> <19981228104750.15675@welearn.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Monday, 28 December 1998 at 10:47:50 +1100, Sue Blake wrote: > On Mon, Dec 28, 1998 at 10:07:51AM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: >> On Sunday, 27 December 1998 at 21:10:15 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote: >>> Brett Glass wrote: >>>> At 01:25 PM 12/27/98 -0500, Pedro F. Giffuni wrote: >>>> >>>>> pah-ehh-yah is more like it... >>>> >>>> Somewhere in between, I think. It's not QUITE pronounced >>>> as a short "e". >>>> >>> >>> Which was the point I was making in my post. It's bloody difficult for >>> Engish speakers (and a few other languages by the sound of it) to >>> pronounce it _exactly_ right, as a Spanish speaker would because that >>> sound doesn't exist in English. Therefore, when some words come into >>> common use in another language the pronounciation changes, which is what >>> I said in reply to Brett stating >>> >>> "....when the English adopt a word from another language, they cannot >>> seem to use it as-is. They seem to feel COMPELLED to shift at least the >>> accented syllables and often the vowels.". >> >> It's not a problem of the sounds, all of which any native English >> speaker uses in normal conversation. The problem is representing them >> so that people can understand them. It doesn't even always help if >> they say them to you, because you'll subconsciously strip off the part >> that you attribute to their accent. >> >> True story: >> >> Some years back, in Germany, we had an American girl working with >> us, an unusual situation in those days. On one occasion, I was >> talking with one of my German colleagues about a (FORTRAN) program >> he was writing, and he referred to the `cummen' section. I said >> ``That's pronounced `common', not `cummen'''. He said, ``that's >> because you're Australian. The Americans pronounce it `cummen'''. >> So we asked (forgot what her name was) how she pronounced it. She >> said `common'. My German colleague said ``see? She said >> `cummen'''. > > No, I'm sure she would have said "cummen", or at least "caahmen". You > said yourself that the o sound is one that the Americans don't use. Right, I deliberately left that vague. Of course she made a different sound from the one I did, but I recognized it as being the same. My German colleague spoke mainly with the same vowels as I did, but he made an exception in this one case. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19981228103521.Q12346>