Re: YAPT
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, January 4, 2005, 15:14 |
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Carsten wrote:
> Today, of course the tsunami damages around the Indian Ocean and all this
> was in the evening news today. However, the speaker repeatedly said
> [SRi "lANka] for <Sri Lanka> and [ko"lAmbo] for <Colombo>. Is this
> really the local pronounciation?! It was pronounced as if these places
> were writen *Shri Lanka and *Columbo.
In English, or the local language? The Sri Lankans still use English
for a lot of administrative purposes. In English, these words are
indeed [Sri laNk@] and [k@'l@mbou(] (mutatis mutandis for English
dialects different from my own). I can't speak for how it's pronounced
in the other languages.
> IIRC they're speaking Tamil on Sri Lanka, don't they?
Yes, some speak Tamil, but I think the majority of the population
speaks Sinhalese. (Hence the civil war.)
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637