Re: Numbers in Qthen|gai (and in Tyl Sjok) [long]

On 13 Jan 2005, at 1.17 am, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 04:32:17PM +1100, Tristan Mc Leay wrote:
>> Hectares and decibels are so rarely if ever used without those
>> prefixes
>> that I mostly forget they *are* normal metric prefixes+measurement,
>> seeming more like tons* than kilograms (and in fact, decibel is often
>> pronounced as one inseperable word, /des@b@l/).
>
> That's the usual pronunciation here as well, but I don't think it's
> relevant; "kilometer" gets the same treatment (/k@'lO.m@.tr=/), even
> though we hear "meter" all the time.
Well, I'm talking about *my own* perceptions, so what you do is hardly
relevant to me :P I never worked out that hectare and decibel were
composed because their pronunciations are smashed together, because the
prefixes are rare to the point of never occurring without those units,
and because the units are rare to the point of never occurring without
those prefixes.

(I also say /k@lOm@t@/, except I use /@/ for your word-final /r=/ and
if everything else is a schwa I hardly see the point of marking the
stress; or alternatively /k&i/. OTOH, I *am* intrigued by your /lO/
there; O is your 'aw', yes? So you pronounce it: k'-LAW-m'-t'r? I
always assumed the American pronunciation would be k'-LAH-m'-t'r.)

--
Tristan.

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