Re: Rotokas (was: California Cheeseburger)

On 22 Jun 2004 Andreas Johansson <andjo@FR...> wrote:

> OTOH, one might want to treat consonant length as primary, since that's what's
> being explicitly indicated.
  I think it is about the meaning of markedness. Pro primo: do we
mark primary things or do we use insignificant entities as a
placehorder for markings of other important features. Pro secundo:
can we discard previous marking traditions in favour of a "more
phonological" approach?

  It seems to me that the basics of the Swedish spelling is a
traditional heritage _before_ the language knew consonant length.
Therefore this kind of markedness has not much to do with the
phological analysis. It is rather a simple mutual coincidence.


> The other example that strikes me ATM is German _Kode_, also spelt
> _Code_, from English _code_. This is however not exactly parallel
> to the Swedish case, since while _webb_ is also phonetically
> adapted to Swedish norms, _Kode_ is, at least by the intellectuals
> I hear it from, pronounced ŕ la anglais.
  I have consulted with Duden's Aussprachewörterbuch: it can be
pronounced both as [ko:t] and [ko:d@]. I think this word was
adapted in two forms, i.e. based on the pronounciation ("Code"
[ko:t]), as well as according to its graphical form ("Code" >
"Kode" [ko:d@], cf. the orthographical duality of place name
"Cottbus" ~ "Kottbus"). One half of german people pronounce it
always as [ko:t], the other as [ko:d@]. They simply do not change
their pronunciation when they meet the alternative form.

  The English word "spray" was adapted in Hungarian as "spré"
[Spre:], "spréj" [Spre:j], "szpré" [spre:], "szpréj" [spre:j].
Officially it is written in its original form "spray", but in a
less conscious environment, it is spellt as it is actually
pronounced. I myself pronounce it always as [Spre:]. I pronounce
[Spre:] even when I read the character string "spréj", "szpré" or
"szpréj". Moreover I disregard the actual graphical picture when
this word is put in instrumental-comitative case: "spréjjel"
/Spre:j:El/, "szpréjjel" /spre:j:El/. In this case I pronounce
"sprével" /Spre:vEl/ despite of the fact that "s(z)préjjel" is a
strongly marked form due to the assimilation of the initial
consonant of the instrumental-comitative suffix.

  Thus German "Kode" seems not to be a partial adaptation but an
optional full adaptation that may be unknown in a number of German
speakers, though.

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