Michael Poxon wrote:
> Rottweiler seems to be one of those "foreign words in transit";
> I pronounce the disputed section of the word.../vai/... as, presumably,
> German speakers do.
Most Americans say /wai/, to answer Tristan's question.
America has a huge German-descended population,
and so <ei> /ai/ is very familiar from other loanwords.
(Yet <oe> and <eu> generally become /o:/ and /ju:/.)
> Something else that grates is Brits referring to Volkswagens as
> /volksw(ae)g@n/!
You don't mind when Americans say it?
> On the other hand, I do recognise that this is a natural part of
> linguistic change, just like Rothschild is never "correctly" read
> as "Roth-schild" (red shield) but instead as "Roth's-Child" and
> pronounced accordingly. Any other examples out there?
Any word that was imported with its foreign (or
conventionally-romanised) spelling. Nicaragua and Anguilla with /gju@/
(in certain parts of the Old World); karaoke /kerioki/ ...
Almost makes me wish for the return of illiteracy.
--
Anton Sherwood -- http://www.ogre.nu/