Re: Schwas in America

On Jun 8, 2004, at 9:42 PM, Danny Wier wrote:
> From: "Stephen Mulraney" <ataltanie@...>
>>> to tie off this snarky flamebait, let me note that many people have a
>>> schwa in BOTH [a]s of "America" when speaking English, or even have
>>> only one ("Merr'cuh").
>>
>> Indeed, and the Irish for "America" is <Meiricea'> /m_jE4_jIk_jA:/
>> :)
>
> Another famous butchering of the name can be found in Arabic (and
> languages
> like Farsi which borrowed from Arabic): _?amri:ka:_. The accented
> vowel in
> America was lost!

I love the shortened Arabic form so much I frequently end up
semi-accidentally using it in Hebrew :) .


-Stephen (Steg)
  "i know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
   i know that the clubs are weapons of war
   i know that diamonds mean money for this art
   but that's not the shape of my heart"
      ~ 'shape of my heart'