Is "ma" Proto-World? (Re: Re: Comparison ofphilosophicallanguages)
| From: | Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, January 24, 2003, 6:36 |
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Tim May wrote:
> I know the Japanese _think_ children mispronounce [s] as [tS], but is
> this really true? How likely is it on a phonetic level? I mean,
> there are a lot more languages with /s/ than with a phoneme /tS/,
> which would suggest to me that it's unlikely as a childish
> mispronunciation.
Well, as I understand it, in Old Japanese, /s/ was /ts/, so presumably
-chan originated back then, a /ts/ -> /tS/ seems a plausible childish
pronunciation.
--
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