Re: OT: Junk

John writes:

>Douglas Koller, Latin & French scripsit:
>
>>  According to S. Robert Ramsey's _The Languages of China_,
>>  Shanghainese's /-N/ indeed *can* be realized as nasalization (he
>>  says: "the word for 'square',...can be pronounced as either /fON1/ or
>>  /fO~1/.")
>
>My comment was based solely on Ramsey.
>
>>  That [Mandarin] /N/ can be rendered nasalized is totally playing
>>with my head --
>>  I've never experienced this on either side of the strait. Could you
>>  give an example?
>
>Nope.  I may quite simply be wrong.
>
>One may say of my Chinese and my Chinese linguistics what Samuel Johnson
>said (with far less justice) of Milton's "Tetrachordon" sonnets, viz.
>"the first is contemptible, and the second not excellent."  I quite
>simply don't know any Chinese.
Feh, feh, feh. Frankly, John, for one who hasn't gotten his shoes
dirty in the trenches, your knowledge of Chinese (from (just?) the L
& T and Ramsey?) is mind-numbingly impressive. That you can comment
on thngs Chinese with correct authority is dazzling. Kudos.

Kou

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