Re: missy elliot

On Sun, Nov 18, 2001 at 11:13:20PM +0100, daniel andreasson wrote:
> Okay. This has been bothering me for some time now. In the
> beginning of "Get Your Freak On" with Missy Elliot, there
> is this phrase in some language I don't know what it is.
> I made a transcription of it. Does anyone know? What does
> it mean?
>
> [kU'rEkara"mIn:adE mE "tSEktSE o "dOt:E saLa"go saLa"go]
I heard it once at a friend's house; everyone thought I was nuts for trying
to figure out the words. It's Japanese, at least the first part, <korekara
minna de>. ["tSEktSE] definitely would NOT be Japanese, as [tS] doesn't
appear before [E] or [e]. I'll have to find the song again now that you've
reminded me, and listen closely. Anyway, <korekara> means "now" or (IIRC)
"from now on;" <minna> means "everybody;" <de> is a postpositive particle
usually meaning "in" or "with" (instrumental; i.e. "by way of something"). I
can't tell which <de> it would be without the rest of the context...

> L is some mix between [l] and [r] and it sounds labialized
> and velarized. Odd sound.
Japanese /r/ varies between [l]-like and [r]-like sounds. I'm not sure if
it's normally velarized or labialized, but it definitely has a lot of
variation.

--
Eric Christopherson, a.k.a. Contrarian Conlanger Rakko ^_^