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Re: CHAT: The [+foreign] attribute

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Thursday, September 5, 2002, 5:04
And Rosta wrote:
>(Somewhat tangentially, the discussion (& mention of the "empan[y]ada" >in the text you posted the url to) prompts me to ask if anyone can >suggest additions to the following list of common mispronunciations of >nativized foreignisms, which I have collected from many many hours >of watching American TV programmes: >* coup de gras >* chaise lounge >* momento >* lingeré >* marquis/marquee of Queensbury [I only heard this once, so don't know >if it's common]) >
These are, alas, all alive and well in Am.Engl. The only one I find at all amusing is _momento_; somday there will be a collection of photos on my website, to be called "Precious Momentos".....don't fail to miss it!! One that always perplexes me-- in "The Godfather", The Don and others all pronounce the name "Tattaglia" with a /g/. Gaining ground, though not foreign, "whole nother"
>> ObConlang: how do people's conlangs handle foreign words
Kash has borrowed a lot from Gwr. There are problems-- /æ/ > /e/, /1/ > /u/, /r/ [3^] > /or/ etc. Gwr /næw/ 'air; gas' > Kash -néyu 'gas' in the names of various elements. Voiced stops are devoiced generally, unless medial in a compound where they may appear as Kash prenasalized vd. stops. /baw du/ 'great land, continent' > Kash pawundu [pa'undu] 'continent'. A few very old borrowings (or from other Gwr languages) preserve original final consonants. Here on Earth, my Kash speaker finds its easiest to borrow from Spanish, the phonologies are very similar: /pero/ dog, /kavayo/ horse, /tiyos/ God. (Italian would do, too, but he has more access to Spanish)

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Pablo David Flores <pablo-flores@...>