Re: CHAT: "boocoo"

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: CHAT: "boocoo"


> Mark J. Reed scripsit:
>
> > "avay" [@'vei] out of "avec" /@'vEk/?  That's just terrible.
>
> I was wondering about that; perhaps some singer or group is so ignorant
> as to believe that "avec" is pronounced with a silent final letter?
>
> > On the other hand, I don't know how we got "Cherokee" ['tSEr\@ki]
> > out of "Tsalagi" /tsAlAgi/,
>
> That seems easy enough:  r/l and s/S interchange are straightforward.
> As for [Er\], it was probably [Ar\] in earlier days, a sound-change
> now mostly backed out in AmE but surviving in a few names like Clark <
clerk
> and the word "varsity" < university.
>
> > or "Japan" [dZ@'p&n] out of "Nippon"
>
> Probably through some kind of Chinese, like "ribenguo" or the like.
> Chinese initial "r" is pretty close to /Z/.
The Cantonese is Yat6Bun2 (Yaht-bún) (日本=Nihon).  That looks close enough to
"Japan" to me.

>