Re: Borrowing a word

Quoting Muke Tever <muke@...>:

> From: "Costentin Cornomorus" <elemtilas@...>
> > --- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote:
> > > How do you think a language would go about
> > > borrowing the word [xuno] when
> > > the language doing the borrowing has no /x/
> > > phoneme nor any /h/
> > > either?
> >
> > English (standard American, RP) doesn't have [x],
> > we'd probably borrow it as /kunow/. Compare with
> > Scots /lOx/ > English /lOk/.
>
> Another option, if applicable, is to use a spelling pronunciation.
> e.g. very commonly "chutzpah" is pronounced with initial [tS] where a [x]
> is originally called for.
Really? I've never heard that, and I've never lived in an
area with a large concentration of Yiddish speakers.  I've
always heard [hUtsp@] when not [xUtsp@].

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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