Re: How to Make Chicken Cacciatore (was: phonetics by guesswork)

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Tristan Mc Leay <kesuari@Y...> wrote:
> Philippe Caquant wrote:
> Perhaps they do it because /lydwigSa'fEn/ (IIRC) is the correct
> pronunciation of 'Ludwigshafen' in French. If someone went off and
> started saying /ludviksha:f@n/ (I assume) they would seem 'utterly
> ridiculous' and 'will almost surely raise laughter and sarcasm
> around'---your words, not mine!
[lUdvIksha:fn=] would have been my first intuitive
pronunciation too, but then, I'm Swiss, and what do we
know about correct German pronunciation?  ;-)  It should
probably be [lUdvICsha:fn=], since the -ig is final in
the component word "Ludwig".



> Just like English writes <cafe>, <facade>, <Sao Paulo>,
> <Fuerher>/<Fuhrer>.
The former few are probably acceptable renderings in
their respective languages if accents are unavailable.
For Führer, however, only Fuehrer is a correct
transliteration.  I would parse Fuhrer as an uncommon
word for truck driver or ferry worker, from Fuhre
"load of cargo" (cogn. to fahren "to drive").

Frankly, the obstinate American opinion that "them
pesky accents can't possibly be important, because
otherwise we'd have them too" strikes me as arrogant.
What would you think if we Europeans kept dropping
the mute e's in English words?

Then again, it's certainly mostly a matter of lack of
information rather than a conscious decision to do
so.  Many just never get told what these dots and
squiggles mean.  I even met someone on IRC who had
taken some German in school, and when I pointed out
he left away an umlaut, he said: "It's been a while,
I don't remember all the accents."  When I told him
that they actually changed the pronunciation and
meaning, he was like, "Oh, really?"  ::sigh::  I
wonder what they do all day in those German courses.
Probably watch B movies about Nazis.



-- Christian Thalmann

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