Re: CHAT: Need a word for these!

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> > Someone who speaks a term or phrase in, say French, and does it with
> > correct French pronunciation.
>
> Oops! I tend to be like that when I use English words in my
> French speech. I've realised also that Dutch people tend to use the
correct pronunciation of
> borrowed words, even when it doesn't include normal Dutch sounds
> (for instance, they litterally take an English accent when pronouncing one
or two English
> words in a Dutch sentence :)) ). I find that an interesting feature...
Doesn't everybody on the world do that? Seriously, I think this has several
reasons: The Netherlands is only a small country, though very
internationally oriented since about the 16th century. Therefore, it is
common for people in The Netherlands to learn the languages of or big
brothers, Germany and England (which our country is squashed in between).

Although both English and German are written very similar to Dutch, they
have a very distinct pronounciation. If we would pronounce English and
German words as written, they could often be confused with native words.
Adapting the foreign but not too weird phonology of the foreign languages we
speak avoids this problem.

When a Dutch person pronounces his English with his Dutch phonology, the
general tendency is to believe him to be not too smart  and not too good at
the foreign language he speaks, even if he knows a lot of words and grammar.
Phonology is one of the most important ascpects in Dutch language teaching.
I had English and German from the age of six in school, not to learn much
grammar or many words, but to adapt the pronounciation (phonology) at an
early age.

Maarten

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