Re Robot

I just replied to a question from Muke Tever,
which I thought was going to the entire list.
Turns out, that the question was sent to me off-list .
Sorry about that.  :-( But considering that in ending
my reply, I asked a question of the entire list,
I'd like to repost it to the list. (Hope it's ok with
you, Muke.)

On 12 Sept, Muke Tever wrote:

>Surely you wouldn't use the same vowel in the abbreviated form <bot> ?
>(<bot> -- affectionate term for robot ? la MST3K, or animate computer
>program as opposed to mobile hardware)
Actually, my first reaction was to pronounce it, Hebrew-style:
/bot/. Upon reflection, if pressed to do it in an "English" style
(whatever that is), I'd probably say /bat/.
    I still can't come to terms with the way I've heard Americans
pronounce DOS,( = /das/). I first met up with the venerable operating
system here in Israel, where it is pronounced, in Hebrew, /dos/.
I seem to have adopted that pronounciation, even when I am
speaking English; even when I know that no English-speaking person will
pronounce it that way.  After all, it's short for "Disk /a/-perating System.
No /o/ involved. Interesting how some things resist code-switching.
Same for "bot": I'd pronounce it Hebrew-style even when talking English!

Anybody else out there who introduces  L2 pronounciations into your L1?

Dan Sulani


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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.