Re: Codename "de" (was Re: Country names in national languages)

 --- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote: > Andreas Johansson wrote:
> >>jp: Doitsu      (from the german pronunciation)
> >
> >Is it known why they didn't make it "Doichi" or something else that keeps
> >the [S]?
>
> Possibly, via Dutch "duits"-- although in the 16-17 C. it was probably
> written "duitsch", and pronounced who knows how??? [d9HtS]? [d9Htsx]?
> perhaps heard as [doits] by the Japanese(?), or already [d9Hts] as nowadays?
Unfortunately, we cannot listen to our ancestors' speech. All I can tell you,
is that the ending "-sch" after a consonant was replaced with "-s" in the
thirties as a part of a large spelling reform (in the Netherlands we do that
every 50 years or so). Thus, "Duitsch" became "Duits", "Engelsch" became
"Engels", and "Nederlandsch" became "Nederlands".
When "-sch" was preceded by a vowel (always i), it remained; in the seventies,
attempts were made to abolish this one as well ("Belgies" and "socialisties"
instead of "Belgisch" and "socialistisch", but this never became widely used.

I don't think this "-sch" has ever been pronounced [S] or [sx]. My guess is,
that it is just a Germanic leftover, corresponding with German "-sch" and
Scandinavian "-sk", but always pronounced like [s].

Jan

=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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