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Re: CHAT: The [+foreign] attribute

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Tuesday, September 17, 2002, 10:21
Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Well, most Americans wouldn't either to my knowledge, while most Europeans can > situate Paris and Prague. Also, Paris and Prague are country capitals, not St. > Louis nor Chicago, so you cannot compare
Indeed, they aren't even state (= provincial) capitals. With the exception of Boston, Massachusetts, the large city in a state is almost never the capital: historically, capitals have been situated in secondary cities, because legislatures have been dominated by rural members who did not trust The Big City. This leads to a riddle on which I even trapped a native Kentuckian: "How do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky, ['luIsvIl] or ['luwivIl]?" People (especially Kentuckians) are so quick to say it's (normatively) ['luwivIl] that they are crushed by the reply, "No, it is pronounced [fr&Nkfr\=t]."
> Nobody will deny that world geography is better taught in Europe than in > America :))) .
Nobody will deny that geography is not taught at all in America. :((( -- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com "You need a change: try Canada" "You need a change: try China" --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know

Replies

bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>
daniel andreasson <danielandreasson@...>
Padraic Brown <elemtilas@...>
Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>