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Re: CHAT: Japanese English (was Re: Correction, I hope,of M/C URL)

From:And Rosta <a.rosta@...>
Date:Friday, March 24, 2000, 1:53
Roger Mills:
> << I wondered that about 'halation'. But if this one is a word, 'escalation' > could well be :) . >> > Perhaps a root erroneously extracted from inhale/inhalation/exhalation? so, > "breathing"?? Nothing would surprise me here,
Why would it be erroneous? There's a Latin _halare_, isn't there? John Cowan:
> BTW, "Scyth" [sIT] is the people and "Scythia" [siTija] the nation. > In general, "sc" before a front vowel is /s/ in English, although a > few words have adopted a spelling pronunciation. One of the shibboleths > is "schism", which is traditionally [sIzm] but now usually pronounced > [skIzm] by people who have read it before they heard it.
Surely this is not a spelling pronunciation. That would be /stSIzm/, surely, which is not used. Rather, /sIzm/ has the authority of tradition, while /skIzm/ has the authority of regularity. /SIzm/ is the one we ought to be complaining about. Curiously, not many people say /@stSu:/ for _eschew_; many say /@Su:/, presumably on the grounds that a funny looking word can't possibly be pronounced the way it's spelt. Mind you, lots of funny stuff goes on with SC, doesn't it. As far as I can see, _sceptic_ should be so spelt, and pronounced /septIk/. As with <skeleton>, I spell it <skeptic>, so as to have an etymologically irregular spelling mirror the pronunication and its etymological irregularity.
> Sometimes /S/ is used instead, as in "schedule" /SEdjul/; in America this > is /skEdZ@l/.
I don't understand anything about this one. Why the <h>? Why /sk/? Why /S/?
> It is said that Eisenhower was talking to Montgomery about /skedZ@lz/, > until Monty asked "Where did you learn to pronounce /SEdjul/ like that?" > Ike replied, "In grammar /Sul/."
One usually supposes these stories to be invented (e.g. Margot Asquith & Jean Harlow - "Margo[t]" "No the T is silent, as in 'Harlow'"), but I can imagine Montgomery perpetrating such arseholery. What I admire most about Eisenhower is his forbearance with the insufferable Montgomery, which strikes me as a kind of metonymic encapsulation of the relationship between their two countries. Ray:
> Using a sickle is back-breaking work; but the scythe with its long wooden > 'handle' (I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but it eludes me) is > much easier. Actually its handles [sic] are short;
I'm disappointed that none of the myriad pedants on this list have posted what the name for the handle is. It's going to nag at me until I find the answer.
> they are attached to > the 'long wooden bit' and if you get the balance & rhythm right, it's quite > easy to use.
Scars on my ankles tell that while it may be quite easy to use if you get the balance & rhythm right, it's very hard to get the balance and rhythm right. --And.