Re: Phoneme winnowing continues

JF = Joseph Fatula
MR = Mark Reed

JF> Still, if we're going to talk about Japanese, shouldn't they be "moratachi"
JF> or something like that?

MR> Why?  We're talking *about* Japanese,  not *in* Japanese.  The word
MR> "mora" is no more a Japanese word than "syllable" is; should we
MR> talk about "sirabirutachi" too?   :)

Probably would be "siraburutachi", actually.  But anyway,
let me make that point stronger.  Even if it *were* a
Japanese term, that would be no reason to use Japanese inflections
when using it in an English discussion.  When a history text written
in English is talking about fuedal Japan and wishes to refer to
more than one Shogun, it says "Shoguns"; most other borrowings from
Japanese are invariant in the plural (one samurai, two samurai) or can
go either way (one ninja, two ninja or two ninjas).

To be sure, English is full of irregular plurals that were borrowed
along with the singular, mostly from Latin - but even Latin borrowings
demonstrate the broader principle of not borrowing all the forms of the
word.  For instance, we might say "I'm going to gather some alumni to
raise money"; the word doesn't become accusative "alumnos" in that sentence
just because it's the object of the verb.

-Mark

Reply