Re: CHAT: Tacos et al.

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. Something else that grates is Brits referring to Volkswagens as
/volksw(ae)g@n/! 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?
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tristan Alexander McLeay" <anstouh@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: CHAT: Tacos et al.


> On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
> > Simple: what you call "elbow macaroni" is in fact simply macaroni.
> > Macaroni is a kind of pasta, along with spaghetti, linguini, fusilli,
> > lasagne, ravioli, cannelloni, vermicelli, etc... Pasta refers to the
> > stuff in which they are made, and to any kind of pasta when it's
> > unnecessary to make any difference. Macaroni is just *one* kind of
> > pasta, as important as spaghetti, or cannelloni, etc... and refers to
> > the very small bended tubes of pasta. Pasta and macaroni are as much
> > synonyms as dog and rotweiller.
>
> While we're going on about pasta, is there a difference between `lasagne'
> and `lasagna'? And, incidentally, is it /rQtwi:l@/ or /rQtwail@/ (Ignoring
> the difference in everything b/n yours and mine, only considering the
> -/i:/- and -/ai/-)*? or is this another of those British versus American
> things? (Can't find a dictionary with an understandable pronunciation
> guide right now.)
>
> *That means don't say it's /vOtv@il@4/ or something... ;)
>
> > You can't always defend the misuse of some words by saying that it's
> > your "idiolect" (that's for that reason that I corrected myself and
> > know say "brava!" when I applause a woman, whatever strange looks I
> > get. If you want to use an Italian word, at least use it correctly).
>
> In English, only `bravo!' is correct, of course, but English isn't
> Italian.
>
> Tristan.
>
> anstouh@yahoo.com.au

Reply