Re: CHAT: F.L.O.E.S.

From:    Joe <joe@...>
> Douglas Koller, Latin & French wrote:
> > Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! /k&rioki/ makes my flesh crawl. It's
> > /karaoke/, plain and simple. People may think I sound affected when I
> > say it that way, but I've lived in Japan -- I've earned it.
>
> But that's just not English.  The English word 'karaoke' is pronounced
> [k&rioki] - no two ways about it.  The Japanese word 'karaoke' is
> pronounce [karaoke].  When using a word in a borrowing, the word must
> fit the languages phonology(well, unless someone really wants to sound,
> well, snobby).   In such a language as English, it's not neccesary to
> change the spelling - English doesn't spell phonetically anyway.
But what you're saying has nothing to do with English
phonology, per se.  If we borrowed the word based on the
Japanese pronunciation, and ran it through whatever constitutes
our generative phonology, we'd get something like [k_hAr@jowkej]
(with aspiration, diphthongization and epenthesis of the glide
[j] as through the native lexicon) or perhaps [k_hArowkej],
but certainly not [k_h&rijowki] (or for those of us raising /&/
before /r/, [k_hErijowki]).  That latter pronunciation comes
from a spelling-pronunciation, and spelling is formally
independent of language use (in all languages, not just English).

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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